For today's International I Love Broccoli Day I have really pushed the boat out! A special menu appropriate for the hot weather which celebrates Broccoli.
Broccoli, Parsnip, Chorizo, Leek, and Saint Agur Blue Cheese Soup
Peel and cut parsnips and gently fry in butter until golden brown, then add cut up leeks and fry as well. Boil broccoli in chicken stock with a bay leaf until nicely done. Add the parsnips and leeks and cook a little longer. Liquidise with one of those hand-hold thingies.
Add blue cheese and chorizo, heat up until cheese has melted. Add salt and nutmeg. After ladling soup into plate, add chopped nuts (hazelnuts are good) and cilantro or parsley. Serve with mini-pizzas.
Heart-Shaped Mini Pizzas
For these I tried out my new Pampered Chef Baking tubes. I have four - one heart-shaped, one star-shaped, and two flower-shaped (the extra flower one was included as an extra). These tubes are used to bake baguette-style loaves in fancy shapes, so you can cut them up and use them for canapes. Great for cocktail parties, sadly I never have any cocktail parties, but I am sure they will come in handy somehow.
The night before I mixed up some sourdough, I needed to refresh my sourdough starter anyway. I just used the starter, regular wheat flour, buckwheat flour, and spelt flour, plus salt. The next morning I kneaded the risen dough and added some butter for smoothness.
Then I sprayed the inside of my baking tube. I have never used baking spray before, but since these tubes are tricky to get into I thought Better Safe Than Sorry!!! and used the spray (butter flavoured). After having sprayed the inside of the tube I formed a roll out of my dough and popped it into the tube - it was 3/4 full. I had heated the oven to 200 C, and put the tube (with lid on) onto a baking sheet Standing Up. That way the dough filled the tube on all sides, resulting in a proper heart-shaped loaf. I baked the bread for one hour.
I left the tube outside of the oven for ten minutes, took off the lids, and slid the bread out - it was very easy, nothing stuck. I waited a bit longer, and then cut the loaf with a Very Sharp Knife into slices.
In the meantime I had prepared the pizza sauce. I fried cut up peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, and leeks in goose fat, and added some tomato puree. This I cooked a little, then I added salt and some vinegar to add a bit of tang.
Back to my heart-shaped pizzalings. I covered each with some fresh basil leaves, added the topping, added some shredded cheddar, and popped them into the still warm oven to melt a little. They made a delicious accompaniment to the broccoli soup. I suppose they could also be toasted and covered with butter before one puts on the basil leaves, but I was getting hungry.
Melon With Berries From the Allotment and Whipped Cream
Since this was rather a light lunch, I added a somewhat excessive dessert. My dear friend C had blessed me with a large number of berries fresh from her allotment, which I soaked in a little amaretto. These I mixed with fresh honeydew melon pieces and topped the lot off with whipped cream and a dusting of cinnamon. It was really very delicious!
Have a very happy International I Love Broccoli Day!
