Fennel Potato Soup With Lobster Medallions Blood Orange Sauce Recipes

FENNEL AND POTATO SOUP

Steps:

• Slice the fennel into medium-size pieces.
• Heat butter and olive oil together in a pot over medium-low heat. Add sliced fennel, spring onions, and 1 cup of the stock. Cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes until fennel is soft and translucent.
• Pour remaining stock into the pot; add potato. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer gently until the potato is very soft and cooked through, about 25 minutes. Gently mash vegetables with a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon until soup is thick and chunky. If soup is too thick, stir in water by tablespoons to your desired consistency. Season with black pepper. Let rest 5 minutes to allow flavors to develop before serving.

ROASTED-POTATO FENNEL SOUP

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• In a large bowl, toss the potatoes with 1/4 cup olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet and roast for 30 minutes, until cooked through.
• Saute the onions and fennel with 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large stockpot on medium heat until translucent, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the roasted potatoes (including the scrapings from the pan) and the chicken stock. Cover and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 1 hour, until all of the vegetables are very soft. Add the heavy cream and allow the soup to cool slightly. Pass the soup through the largest disk of a food mill or chop coarsely in batches in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Taste for salt and pepper. Reheat and serve hot.

FENNEL, GARLIC AND POTATO SOUP

Steps:

• Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat and add the onion, celery, chopped fennel and a generous pinch of salt. Cook gently for about 5 to 8 minutes, until the vegetables have softened and lost some of their volume. Add the potatoes, garlic, bouquet garni and the water or stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, add salt to taste, cover and simmer 45 minutes.
• Remove the bouquet garni. Blend the soup until smooth with an immersion blender, or ladle into a blender, working in 1 1/2-cup batches. Remove the center from the blender cover, place a towel over the cover and pull it down tightly to prevent splashing. Blend and return to the pot. Heat through, add salt and pepper to taste and serve, or chill and serve cold, with your choice of garnishes.

FENNEL SOUP

Steps:

• Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the quartered fennel bulbs; cook and stir until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Pour in the broth, and simmer until fennel is tender, about 15 more minutes. Ladle into soup bowls, and season with salt and pepper.

FENNEL POTATO SOUP WITH LOBSTER MEDALLIONS, BLOOD ORANGE SAUCE

Steps:

• Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or medium soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and sweat them for 3 minutes. Add the fennel and sweat 5 minutes, until it begins to get tender. Add the potatoes, wine and Pernod and simmer to reduce the liquid until it is nearly gone. Season with salt and pepper. Add the vegetable stock, bring to a boil, and then reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes.
• Meanwhile, put the cream in a small heavy-bottomed saucepot over medium heat. Simmer to reduce until it has thickened and has rich nutty flavor. Set aside.
• While the soup simmers, prepare the Blood Orange Reduction. Whisk together the blood orange juice, lemon juice and honey in small non-reactive saucepot. Simmer over medium heat to reduce to a syrup, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
• Transfer soup in batches to a blender and process until smooth (or use a stick blender in the pot). Pass each batch through a mesh sieve, pushing it through with a rubber spatula. Discard solids. Return the soup to the saucepot over medium heat. Whisk in the reduced cream and adjust seasoning to taste. Keep the soup warm while preparing the lobster.
• Bring a medium saucepot of salted water to a boil. Add the lobster tail and boil for 2 minutes, just enough to be able to remove the meat from shell, not to cook through. Put the tail in an ice bath to stop cooking. Remove the meat from the shell and cut the tail in half, rinsing if necessary. Slice the lobster into bite size pieces.
• Melt the butter in the saucepot. Whisk in the lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add the lobster pieces and poach over low heat until just cooked through, about 2 minutes.
• Ladle hot soup into bowls. Add poached lobster pieces to each serving. Drizzle the soup with blood orange reduction and garnish with orange segments and fennel fronds.

SWEET POTATO SOUP WITH LOBSTER AND ORANGE CRèME FRAîCHE

Steps:

• Mix cream, sour cream, 1 1/2 teaspoons ginger and orange peel in medium bowl to blend. Let stand until thickened, about 3 hours. Cover crème fraîche and refrigerate.
• Preheat oven to 400°F. Melt 4 tablespoons butter in large pot over medium heat. Remove from heat. Add sweet potatoes and sugar and toss to coat. Arrange sweet potatoes on 2 baking sheets. Roast until very tender and starting to brown, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.
• Melt 4 tablespoons butter in same pot over medium heat. Add leeks, celery and remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons ginger and sauté until leeks begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add roasted sweet potatoes and sauté 2 minutes. Add 10 cups broth and orange juice. Bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until leeks and celery are very tender, about 20 minutes.
• Working in batches, puree soup in processor. Return soup to pot. Thin with more broth, if desired. Season with salt and pepper. (Crème fraîche and soup can be made 2 days ahead. Cover separately; chill.)
• Remove lobster meat from shells. Slice into 1/3-inch-thick medallions. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add lobster; sauté until heated through, about 1 minute.
• Bring soup to simmer. Ladle into bowls. Spoon small dollops of crème fraîche atop soup. Draw skewer through crème fraîche to form design. Arrange lobster atop soup. Sprinkle with parsley.

COLD FENNEL SOUP WITH LOBSTER

Steps:

• Remove the stalks and feathery leaves from the fennel bulbs. Mince two tablespoons of the leaves and set aside. Chop the bulbs. You should have about two cups of the chopped bulbs. If additional fennel is needed, chop some of the stalks. Discard any unused stalks.
• Heat the oil in a heavy four-quart saucepan. Add the onion and chopped fennel bulbs and cook slowly, covered, until they are soft and transparent.
• Add the stock, bring to a simmer, and stir in the potatoes and cumin. Simmer partly covered until the vegetables are very tender, about 30 minutes.
• While the vegetables are simmering, steam the lobster for 10 minutes, allow it to cool briefly, then remove the meat from the tail and claws. Dice the meat and refrigerate it, covered, until ready to serve.
• When the vegetables are tender, allow them to cool briefly, then puree in a blender in batches. Puree the soup in a food processor, if you prefer. It will not be as smooth and will benefit from being forced through a fine sieve. Refrigerate the puree, covered, at least four hours or overnight.
• Before serving, stir the half and half into the puree, using as much as you need to give the soup a creamy, but not too thick, consistency. If calories are a concern, the soup can be thinned with water. Add the Pernod and season the soup with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into six shallow soup plates and spoon some of the lobster into the middle of each. Scatter the minced fennel leaves over the soup and serve.

FENNEL SOUP WITH ORANGE CRèME FRAîCHE AND CROUTONS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°F with rack in middle.
• Wash leek , then cook with garlic, fennel seeds, and 1 teaspoon salt in 3 tablespoons oil in a heavy medium pot over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 8 minutes.
• Meanwhile, peel potato and cut into 1/2-inch pieces.
• Add potato, fennel, and water to leek mixture and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are very tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
• Toss bread cubes with remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a shallow baking pan. Bake, stirring once or twice, until crisp and golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Purée soup in batches in a blender until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids). Return to pot and season with salt and pepper.
• Chop 1 tablespoon fennel fronds and whisk together with crème fraîche and zest.
• Serve soup with orange crème fraîche and croutons.

POTATO, FENNEL, AND BACON SOUP

Steps:

• Place potatoes into a large pot and cover with salted water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until barely tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, place bacon in a deep skillet and cook over medium-high heat, turning occasionally, until evenly browned, about 10 minutes. Drain bacon slices on paper towels and reserve about 2 tablespoons of the drippings in the skillet. Drain potatoes.
• Melt butter in the skillet with the bacon drippings. Add fennel; cook and stir over medium heat until browned, about 12 minutes. Crumble the bacon and add to the pan along with vegetable stock, potatoes, and Chinese five-spice. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and season with salt and pepper.
• Transfer 1 1/2 cups of the soup to a blender. Cover and hold lid down with a potholder; pulse a few times before leaving on to blend. Return to the pot and continue simmering until flavors combine, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Season with five-spice, salt, and pepper.