Pear soup!

I am (obviously) on a soup kick lately. No lamenting lack of pictures for this one, because it is nothing exceptional looking...it is, however exceptional tasting. I was inspired by a soup I had as an amuse-bouche at a restaurant near my parent's house when I was home in April. They bring out a little shot glass full of soup and a little spoon, and it wasn't nearly enough. I tried to recreate it from memory-not entirely the same, but still good enough to share.

Parsnip-Pear Soup
1 medium sweet onion, peeled and quartered
2 large shallots, peeled and halved
3 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
2 lbs parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
4 medium ripe pears, peeled and cut into chunks
~4 cups vegetable stock* (chicken is fine if you want a richer soup)
1 small spring rosemary
1/4-1/2 cup whole milk or heavy cream
olive oil
salt and pepper
1/4 tsp cardamom
fresh nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 F. Toss Onion, shallots, garlic, and parsnips in olive oil to coat and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread on a cookie sheet and roast for 35-40 minutes, until vegetables are soft and browned. Remove from oven, and let cool enough to handle. Peel garlic, and chop other vegetables into small pieces. Place vegetables in a pot with chopped pears, and cover with broth. Add rosemary sprig and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until pears and parsnips are very tender. Remove rosemary,and puree soup with an immersion mixer or in batches in a blender. Add more veggie stock if neccesary to thin soup to desired consistency. Stir in milk or cream and cardamom. add fresh-grated nutmeg to taste.


* Don't buy vegetable stock from the store! It is so easy to make on your own, and makes a HUGE difference in the taste of soups-much more so than canned vs homemade chicken or beef stock. Just save all your vegetable leftovers-carrot peels, the tops and leaves of celery, leftover onion and garlic, broccoli stalks, outside leaves of brussels sprouts, etc-pretty much everything except tomatoes-in a gallon ziploc bag in the freezer. When it is full, toss it in a big pot, add an onion cut into quarters, maybe some shallots or leeks, and a couple cloves of garlic. cover with water, shake in a bunch of salt and ground pepper, add 3-4 bay leaves, a couple sprigs of rosemary, several shakes of dried thyme and tarragon. Bring it to a boil, cover, and simmer for a few hours. Add salt and pepper to taste, let it cool, strain, and you have fresh homemade veggie stock! Use right away or freeze.

I wish I had a better camera

So I could take pictures of this delicious and beautiful soup! I followed the recipe pretty closely (for once), adding an extra jalepeno, using regular soy sauce and a splash of fish sauce instead of tamari, an extra teaspoon of curry paste and an extra sprinkle of garam masala. It's super tasty, a little sweet from the squash, creamy from the coconut milk, and has lip-tingling spice offset by cilantro-mint pesto.

It's also the prettiest shade of light orange, with little beads of red from the curry paste and a dark green swirl of pesto. If I only had a camera other than my 3 MP piece of crap from 2003, I would share with the internet. For graduation I am buying myself a new camera.
For tonight, I am eating my soup!