CHILLED ORANGE ,CARROT & GINGER SOUP WITH PARMESAN CRACKER
Hello there,
With the warmer spring days , we will continue our chef's techniques exploration with a chilled soup.
Actually very light and healthy, this soup is a mix of awesome great matching flavors.....
In the recipe progression we'll meet two basic techniques in thickening a soup with veggies and the well known "heavy cream thickening we already met once in the hot pumpkin creamy soup.
The overall techniques used in this recipe:
Hot & cold sauces -mix 3: Mashed Vegetable Thickening
Hot & cold sauces -mix 18: Heavy cream thickening
Cooking 11 : Blanching
Ingredients for serving 8
- Carrots 1KG - 2,2 lbs
- Oranges 250 GR - 1/2 lb
- Poultry or veggie Broth 10 CL - 3,5 FLOZ
- Olive oil 1 CL - A DASH
- Heavy cream 10 CL - 3,5 FLOZ
- Ginger Root 10 GR - 0,3 OZ
- Rosemary Strand 1
- Ground cumin A PINCH
- Cilantro leaves 1 Tablespoon
Orange skins blanching:
First of all , you'll have to peel the orange with a Vegetable peeler and slice them in stripes as thin as you can( have a look at the "How to safely use a chef knife").The problems with citrus skin are bitterness and ......chemicals!! Unless you use organic oranges.
Blanching..... is the technique we need at this moment to get rid of strong tastes and unwanted stuffs( blood , chemicals, ....).
Just put your Orange skin Shred in a pan and fill up with cold water in big quantity. Bring to boil and at the first boils strain the orange skins and repeat the operation three times.
Finally , you have soft , clean and good tasting orange skin. Keep on the side
COOKING THE CARROT SOUP
- Peel & cut the carrots in chunks
- Peel & chop ginger
- Juice the oranges
- remove rosemary leaves and keep on the side
- Prepare cilantro leaves and store in a cool place
Now , you are ready to cook the soup:
- Bring the poultry (or veggie broth) to boil , add carrot chunks and leave boiling for about half an hour.
- Pour the orange juice, add cumin , ginger, rosemary and half of the blanched skins. Leave boiling an extra 10 minutes.
- Blend the soup with the olive oil in order to get an emulsion.
- Bring back on the stove to fine tune the thickness by leaving soup to reduce at the desired thickness. Do not use starch , it would give a jello like consistency .....
- Then cool the soup down as much possible (or better ; place in blast chiller)
- Check seasoning.
THE PARMESAN CRACKERS
This kind of salty crackers are a must with many starters such as veggie tartar or avocado mousse (coming soon on the blog). The only ingredient needed is ...... Flaked parmesan ( not ground)!
- Preheat your oven at very high t°C
- Take an oven tray covered with wax paper or a Silpat Mat(can be bought by cooking gear suppliers) slightly oiled.
- Pour parmesan flakes on the paper in shape and size of the desired cracker .You need to have an 1/8 inch thick raw cracker.
- Place in oven till light brown and let cool few seconds. With a metal spatula , place the crackers on a cool tray and leave until it sets hard
- Your cracker is ready to use ......
JUST NEED TO FINALIZE......
The last step consists in adding a bit of cream in the chilled soup, add the second half of orange skin shred( keep a bit for décoration if you want), place some cilantro or ( and) rosemary leaves to top up your plate.
Nicely dispose the cracker on top of your presentation bowl or plate ........... And enjoy this wonderful dish.
