Parsnip and Fennel

It's been a soup filled weekend! My mum called yesterday to see if we wanted to go over for a roast today, mmm roast! I decided to try out a soup to bring with us, parsnip and fennel, two ingredients I had never cooked before.

As I took out the 1 pound bag of parsnip from the fridge, J's reaction was, it's a white carrot (clearly I am not the only one unfamiliar with this veggie). He tried it, and declared it was a carrot. We put it to the true test of Oslo's palette. A fact about Oslo, he's tasted quite a few different foods, and carrots are at the top of his love list, unlike lettuce, which will be left to wilt on the kitchen floor if he has anything to do with it. We passed him a taste of parsnip, and it went more the lettuce route, clearly different from carrot.

The whole 1lb bag of parsnip, peeled and chopped, went into the pot with 2 tablespoons of butter, on low heat with the cover on to "sweat" for 45 minutes. Once it was nice and golden brown and soft, I added the next litre and a bit of stock (defrosted from the freezer) and removed from heat to puree. Back on the heat it went while I added a half cup of 18% cream and a half cup of sherry. The sherry adds a third new ingredient to my cooking experiences today. While that was heating up nicely, about a cup of finely chopped fennel was put into a frying pan on medium-high heat with a table spoon of butter. Once it was a golden colour, it was stirred into the creamy puree that smelled divine. Voila! Parsnip and fennel soup.

My mum called to see if we were ready, so we headed downstairs, loaded with the pot of hot soup, the dog, his chuck-it, among other things, to enjoy what was a delicious lunch!

There was a bone in the roast, so you can guess what is on our stove at the moment...