Elegant fennel soup

click here for a printable version

serves 4-6

2-3         fennel bulbs (about 600 g)
1            onoin
1            garlic clove
1            medium sized potatoe
1/2 tsp   fennel seeds
1            star anise
3 tbsp    olive oil
1 l          homemade chicken stock
              sea salt, white pepper
100 ml   heavy cream
100 ml   milk
2 tsp      lemon juice

For serving:

4 tbsp    whipped cream
              best quality olive oil
              some fennel greens


Clean and trimm the fennel bulbs. Keep some of the greens and cut the fennel into small dice. Cut the onion and the potatoe into small dice as well.

Place the fennel seeds and the star anise into a little cloth and tie up well.

Heat the oil in a casserole  and sauté the onion. Then add the diced fennel and sauté for two more minutes stirring constantly.

Add the chicken stock, potatoes, garlic and spices and let cook on low heat for 30 minutes.
Now add the milk and cream and let come to a boil.

Remove the spices and puree the soup with a handmixer.

Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Serve in hot soup bowls and garnish with a little whipped cream, olive oil and fennel green

Morrocan Veal Stew

A good weekday dish to heat up from the inside.

800 g        veal for stewing
2               onions
4               garlic cloves
2               carrots
1               leek, only the white parts
1               red bell pepper
4               aromatic tomatoes
1               red chili pepper
5-6 tbsp    good olive oil
1 tbsp       tomato paste
2 tsp         Raz-el-Hanout (arabic spice blend - absolutely mandatory in this dish)
1               bay leave
                 salt, pepper
1,5 l          veal stock
                 how to prepare white veal stock
200 g        cooked chick peas
                 recipe for curried chick peas on RouxBe - sounds delicious
1 bunch     leaf parsley

• Cut the veal into 2 cm big dice.
  
• Peel the onions, carrots and garlic. Cut the onions in small dice, the garlic in very thin slices and the carrots in 0,5 cm thick slices.
  
• Clean the leek and the bell pepper and cut both into dice as well.
  
• Blanch the tomatoes, peel and cut into quarters.
  
• Wash the chili pepper and pierce a couple of times with a fork.
  
• Heat three tbsp olive oil in a large cook pot and sear the meat in portions from all sides until brown. Remove from the pot.
  
• Heat the remaining olive oil in the same pot and fry the onions and carrots until they take some colour. Then add the leek and bell pepper and fry five more minutes on medium heat. Add the tomato paste and garlic and roast for a minute. Finally add the Raz el Hanout, the meat, bay leave and the chili pepper and fill in the hot veal stock. Bring to a boil and then lower the temperature. Let simmer for about 30 minutes.
  
• Add the chick peas and let simmer for 30-60 more minutes until the meat is tender.
  
• Finely chop the parsley and let cook in the stew for five minutes.
  
• Serve the stew with a hot yoghurt sauce (halv two red chili peppers and take out the veines and the seeds. Cut into smalles dice. Mix with 300 g turkish yoghurt, juice of 1/2 a lime, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar).
  
• Have some crispy, fresh bread to serve with the stew.

Velouté aux moules

An elegant starter for a menu taking advantage of the mussel season.
I apologize for the picture - I guess a course in photography should be one of my next projects.


click here for a printable version

To prepare the mussels:


1                   Onion
100 ml           Fish stock
100 ml           White wine
1 kg               Mussels, washed and cleaned
2 tbsp            Olive oil
2                    Garlic cloves


To prepare the Velouté:


2 tbsp            Olive oil
1                    Fennel bulb, cut into thin slices
1/4 tsp           Fennel seeds
1 piece          Orange peel (app. 10 cm)
1 tbsp             Flour
2 tsp               Tomato paste
300 ml            Fish stock
                        Reserved cooking liquid from the mussels
100 ml            Heavy cream
1 capsule       Saffron
                        Salt, freshly ground white pepper              


For serving:


Fennel cut into brunoise (small dice)
Fennel green, chopped




Cut the onion in thin slices and chop the garlic. Heat the olive oil in a deep saucepan with cover and sauté the onions and the garlic. Deglaze with the wine and let evaporate a little. Add the fish stock. Once boiling, add the mussels, cover and  let boil until all the shells have opened. Pass through a sieve and reserve the cooking liquid. Sort out all the closed shells. Separate the meat from the shells and reserve.


Clean the fennel bulb and cut into thin slices. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and sauté the fennel and the fennel seeds until the fennel is tender. Add the flour and the tomato paste and cook over medium heat for three minutes. Reduce heat to low and whisk - with a wire whisk - in the fish stock and the reserved cooking liquid (passed through a very fine sieve previously). Add the orange peel and let cook for 10 minutes.


Strain once more through a sieve and return to the cleaned pot. Add the saffron and cream and continue to cook over low heat for 5 more minutes.


Divide the mussels into individual bowls, fill in the hot soup and sprinkle with fennel brunoise and fennel green.

©just-cook!

The ultimate summer soup

This cold little soup is so very yummy on a hot summer day but you have to see to it to use tomatoes of a really good quality (organic if possible) and they have to be ripe.

It has a nice effect if you serve this soup in a glas that was cooled in the freezer before.

This recipes I´ve drawn from one of my favorite cookbooks from Lea Linster, Avec amour. Her cooking is unpretentious so you don´t spend hours over preparing a single dish but the results always are really satisfying.

Leas cold tomatosoup

click HERE for a printable version

For 4 - 6

1 kg                        ripe Tomatoes (e.g. Roma)

1 teaspoon               Salt

                               Pepper
1 tablespoon            powdered sugar

4 tablespoons           very good Olive Oil

2 tablespoons           Sherry vinegar
4-6 teaspoons          Goat Cream Cheese
8-12                         Mintleaves
                                a bit of coarsely crushed black pepper

Wash the tomatoes and cut out the green core (is it called that? Well, I hope you know what I mean). Cut up roughly then puree with the hand blender and add salt, freshly ground pepper and the powdered sugar. This you now pass through a hair sieve into a stainless steel bowl (if you have one, otherwise glas will do). With a wire whisk mix in 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and the sherry vinegar. That´s all for the moment. Now your soup has to rest some hours in the fridge. Before serving it stir it once more. Add a teaspoon of the goat cream cheese to each glas or bowl, fill up with the soup, pour a couple of drops of the remaining olive oil onto each serving and devorate with the finely cut mint and the coarsely crushed black pepper. Perfect.