Fennel Apple Soup

Another day, another excuse to use my immersion blender. We bought some fennel at the farmers market last week, intending to make a fennel and shaved parmesan salad, but we just never got around to it. As the fennel lay wilting in our refrigerator. John dug up this recipe. I encourage you to read the whole post, as they go into a lot of information about fennel that I won't pretend to have thoroughly read.

So, after some chopping, boiling, blending, and some disastrous attempts at making parmesan cheese tubes, here's what we ended up with.

So in that picture, you've got two parmesan cheese tubes dunked in a bowl of soup with some diced apples and bacon thrown in for garnish.

Before I go any further, I should tell you what we thought.

The soup was good. It wasn't amazing, or knock-your-socks-off, or rich or the most flavorful that we've ever had, but it was good. It was light, and both sweet and tart. We both agreed that this was more of a summer soup than a winter soup and we even want to try it cold.

Now that I've possibly not convinced you to try this, I'll tell you how to make it.

Ingredients:

• 3 local and organic baby fennel bulbs
• 3 organic celery stalks
• 1 local and organic onion
• 2 cloves of local and organic garlic
• 1 tsugaru apple (local)
• Water
• Salt and pepper
• 3/4 cup organic heavy cream
• 3 slices bacon (optional)
• 1/2 tsugaru apple (optional)

Chop all of the vegetables and the apple in coarse chunks. You use the entire fennel bulb, from root to fern-like tip. Throw all of chopped ingredients in a soup pot and cover with water. Bring the soup to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, for 45 minutes.

Use your immersion blender to puree the soup. Add some heavy cream. The original recipe called for a cup, but since we're trying to watch our calorie intake, I used less than 3/4 of a cup. It just didn't seem to need any more. Stir and add salt and pepper to taste.

Before serving, crisp a slice or two of bacon and crumble in the bottom of the bowl. Dice half an apple and add some of that to the bowl as well. Top with soup and a parmesan cheese tube (see below).  

Parmesan Cheese Tubes

The original recipe showed these beautiful parmesan cheese tubes with large basil leaves wrapped up in them. We've tried shaping baked cheese before with horrible results. But I was game to try again.

My first attempt was a failure. The cheese circles, which were supposed to bake for 7-9 minutes, were smoking after 3. When I pulled them out of the smoking oven, they were more like lace than cheese. I tried to shape them and it just didn't take.

In hindsight, there were two issues. First, I used asiago instead of parmesan. Second, I used way too little cheese. My second attempt, however, was very nearly successful.

All you need to do is pile about a quarter cup of cheese on a silpat. This is important. Do not try to make these without a silpat.

Add some spices on top and place in a 350 oven for 7-9 minutes. When they are done, they should look very much like the picture here. Let the cheese cool for 2 minutes, and then roll into a tube.