Carrot And Orange Cold Summer Soup ©
This is a wonderfully cooling soup for those hot summer evenings and for those that remember the Balthazar Restaurant.
It was so good, I had to figure out how to make it!
This is especially for Annette, who requested it from her memories of a dinner I gave, many years ago!
Easy, but a little time consuming…..
Serves 6 people
Ingredients
1 kl. Carrots
2 medium onions finely diced
25 g butter
600 ml chicken stock: prepare day before
2 tsp sugar
juice 4-8 Oranges ( Reserve in fridge )
50 ml cream
coriander leaves to garnish
ice cubes with coriander leaves : prepare day before
Salt finely ground black pepper ( opt )
Method
DAY BEFORE.
1. Prepare your chicken stock the day before in the usual way. ( 1 chicken, enough water just to cover, 2 carrots, 2 leeks, 2 onions celery, 6 black pepper corns, 1 tsp salt, Bouquet Garni made from fresh parsley, bay leaf and fresh thyme. Boil gently for 1.5 hrs, test with skewering thickest part, that it is completely cooked. Pour stock into a bowl, passing it through a sieve, leave to cool and then chill in fridge. Next day, using a slotted spoon, skim off the fat, which has solidified on top of your stock and the stock is ready to use. This is a good tip, because especially when making a cold soup, you want the final result to be smooth, something it won’t be if there is too much fat content.
TO MAKE ICE CUBES
Place a coriander leaf in each square of your ice-cube tray and fill with water. Place in freezer ready for next day!
Make sure you have your oranges cooling in the fridge too!
***
NEXT DAY
2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan and saute your finely diced onions until transparent. They must not brown, so do this carefully, it will take 3-4 minutes, stirring over a medium heat.
3. Add your peeled and sliced carrots. Turn in the butter and sweat for two minutes and add your stock to just cover carrots.
4. Bring your soup to the boil, turn down heat and leave to simmer until carrots are completely tender. About 3/4 of an hour. Test with the tip of a knife.
5. Remove from heat, cool a little. Pour off liquid into a bowl and reserve. Blend carrots thoroughly until really smooth. 2-4 minutes in blender.
6. If you want a really smooth finish and it is for a special occasion, pass soup through fine sieve. This does take about five minutes, but gives a beautifully smooth result.
7. Place carrot puree in Soup Terrine and place in fridge, together with reserved liquid in its separate bowl, for at least two hours to thoroughly chill.
8. Half an hour before serving, first squeeze and sieve your orange juice. (This can not be done too far ahead, or orange juice becomes bitter.) Add orange juice to your soup and then add some of the stock, until you get the consistency you want. Keep it a little on the thick side, until you have tasted it, as it may need more orange juice. It needs to have a definite orange flavour. The final thickness should be like thick cream.
9. Add the cream and taste again for seasoning.
10. Return to fridge for ten minutes and serve with three coriander ice cubes and a coriander sprig for decoration.
As you serve each bowl, decorate also with a coriander ice cube.
This is one of those soups that you will be remembered by!
Chicken Stock.
Place a leaf of coriander in each square of your ice tray and fill ice tray with water. Place in Freezer.
Saute diced onions on a low heat, until transparent. Do not brown!
These onions still need cooking, they are not yet transparent…..
Peel and slice carrots.
Saute carrots for two minutes.
Add chicken stock to carrots.
Add enough stock just to cover carrots. Simmer gently until soft, 1/2–3/4 of an hour.
Using the lid of the saucepan, pour off the liquid through a sieve into a bowl and reserve.
Place carrots in blender.
Blend carrots until smooth, 3-4 minutes.
Pour carrot puree into sieve and pass through sieve.
Using a wooden spoon, stir continuously to pass puree through fine sieve. When finished place carrot puree
in soup terrine in fridge for at least two hours to chill, together with the stock in a separate bowl.
Choose nice Valencia summer oranges……
….and squeeze……
Pass orange juice through sieve and add to carrot puree. Dilute yet more with stock. taste, it should have
a distinctive orange flavour and the soup should be thick like cream. Add more stock or orange juice if necessary.
Add cream and taste for seasoning.
Garnish with ice cubes and coriander.
Serve with Coriander Ice cubes.
Final result !!! Bon Appétit !
Celebration Time! Long Live Our Queen! ©
Cucumber Sandwiches , Smoked Salmon and Coriander Cream Cheese Canapes and a little Champagne!
Crème Favorite ©
To Celebrate Our Queen And Thank Her For 60 Years of Dedication!
Red White And Blue!
4 egg whites
225g caster sugar
500ml cream
675g raspberries fresh or frozen
A few blackberries
icing sugar
Kirsch or framboise (optional)
Decoration
Fresh raspberries for decoration
100ml whipper cream for cream stars
icing sugar for dusting fruit
Method
Put oven on 110.C. Place shelf a little lower than the middle of the oven.
1. Line baking tray with grease proof paper.
2. To make the meringue, beat egg whites in spotlessly clean large bowl until stiff and standing in peaks.
3. Whisk in half the sugar, whisk again for 2 mins.
4. Using a large metal spoon fold in the remaining sugar, quickly and lightly, so as not to lose volume.
5. Spoon out into a rough round about 23 cm in diameter and 1.1/2 cm high. I chose to pipe mine with a star nozzle piping bag, as I wanted to make the extra stars, see picture.
6. Cook in low oven for about 3 hrs, or until dry. ( Perfect for “Aga” cooking Oven )
7. In the mean time, reserve a few raspberries for decoration and pass the rest through a fine sieve, using a metal or wooden spoon.
This takes a little time, but the result is delicious, ‘Raspberry Coulis” Finally whisk in 2 tsp of icing sugar. Place in serving jug and keep in fridge.
8. Beat cream until the beaters leave a trail ( nearly solid ) and reserve also in the fridge.
9. Once the meringue is ready, leave to cool in oven, when cold remove, detach “Stars” and reserve in serving bowl.
10. Break up the rest of the meringue into mouth sized pieces and mix together with cream. ( If it has gone a little runny while waiting, beat again. )
11. Using a 300ml bowl or pudding basin, line the sides and base with a thin layer of cream and fill with meringue and cream mixture to the top. Level off.
12. Cover and place in deepfreeze for at least 4 hours.
13. When ready to use, remove from deepfreeze and after 20 mins, slide a sharp knife down the inside of the bowl, all the way round, until it detaches from the bowl. Turn out onto serving dish.
14. I then return it to the deepfreeze until about half an hour before serving.
15. Decorate, by pouring over some of the raspberry coulis and decorating with the reserved raspberries. If you have a little cream left over, you can decorate it also with stars of cream, using a piping bag.
16. Reserve in fridge until it is time to serve. Dust fruit using a sieve, with a little icing sugar just before serving.
N.B. This can be made ahead of time.
Prepare baking tray with grease-proof paper.
Whisk egg whites until stiff peaks. Add half the sugar and whisk for 2 minutes.
Fold in sugar, lightly and quickly.
Spoon into piping bag and pipe out as in following picture. Or just spoon out a 2 cm high round on grease-
proof paper.
A good opportunity to have some fun with a star nozzle piping bag!
Otherwise just spread out the meringue with a spoon into a round 1.5cm high.
Place in oven 110.C. for 3 hours.
Pipping out the base. This can also be done with a spoon.
Pass raspberries through fine sieve.
Until only the seeds remain. it takes a little time, but is well worth it. Add icing sugar.
Raspberry Coulis.
In the mean time beat the cream until the whisk leaves a trail. ( Almost stiff )
Once the meringue is ready and completely cooled in the oven, detach stars and place in serving bowl.
Break up rest of meringue into mouth sized pieces.
Meringue broken up into mouth sized pieces.
Mix with whipped cream.
Place meringue and cream in pudding basin, or other bowl with similar shape and level off the top carefully.
When you turn it out, you want it to sit straight!
Leave in deep freeze covered with tin foil for at least 4 hours, or until ready to use.
Take out of freezer. After 20 minutes slide knife down the sides of the pudding basin all the way round,
until meringue becomes loose. Turn out onto serving dish, decorate with raspberry coulis by pouring a little
over the top. Then decorate with meringue stars, raspberries/ blackberries and using your piping bag,
decorate with cream. Dust fruit with icing sugar, just before serving.
Final result! Red White And Blue!
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