Creme Ninon aka Posh Pea Soup

 

Creme Ninon is so easy to make and tastes so good, great light starter for a nice dinner. My recipe goes something like this:

(serves 2-4)

2 small bags of frozen peas (can use fresh when they're in season but frozen are always good)

1 onion, chopped

Olive oil, 2 tbsp

1 herby veg stock cube

Water, enough to cover the peas

Plenty of fresh mint leaves

Cream, 1dl, whipped but not too much

Champagne (I used Cremant d'Alsace) , 1dl

1. Sautee the onion in the olive oil in a saucepan until translucent.

2. Add the peas, veg stock cube and the water. Bring to boil and let simmer for a couple of minutes, don't overcook the peas. 

3. Add the mint leaves and blitz with a stick blender. Pass through a sieve to make it very smooth.

4. Serve the soup on bowl, add a dollop of cream in the middle and pour a small amount of Champagne around it. 

5. Enjoy with some more Champagne. Oh la la!

 

Ahh-sparagus!

Springy foods part two:

Asparagus, New potatoes, Zucchini, Poached egg and Home-made Mayo

First, the asparagus needs to be prepared. We cooked this already about a month ago so the asparagus wasn't as good as it is now in the shops. Hence they were a bit woody and needed trimming quite a lot. First I snapped the ends off and then peeled the skins of the asparagus.
Green asparagus doesn't need to be cooked too long, or it looses it's freshness. 3 minutes or so, depending on size.

New potatoes were boiled, and zucchini was lightly pan fried. Eggs were poached in hot water with vinegar for about three minutes to keep them runny in the middle.

This was my first time making mayonnaise from scratch and it turned out beautiful. I used about three egg yolks, started whisking them and then slowly added rapeseed oil to the eggs. Once the mix started to turn white from yellow I added some mustard (dijon is best but I used Finnish Turun sinappi ), white wine vinegar and seasoning.

Then all this was piled on the plate and I can tell you it was divine! We sipped some Anna de Codorniu cava that matched the flavours quite nicely I think.

We have some more asparagus in the fridge so maybe there will be an another asparagus posting coming up soon... Any good recipe ideas?