Tangled Menu: Part Two – Hazelnut Parsnip Soup

Hazelnut Parsnip Soup — that is what Rapunzel wanted her “mother” to make for her birthday in the movie “Tangled” – believe it or not such a soup exists! 🙂

My entire family enjoyed this soup.  It does take a little extra effort to make it, but is worth the work.  Once you hunt down the ingredients the hardest part is done.  Parsnips? What are they? The best way to describe them is yellow carrots.  Hazelnuts are sometimes called Filberts. They are quite common in Europe – you may know of Nutella which is made from Hazelnuts.

Hazelnut Parsnip Soup

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 1 cup roasted hazelnuts (and 1/2 cup for garnish- roast all at once)
• 4 shallots, chopped
• 2 medium leeks (whites only), chopped
• 2 parsnips, peeled and chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 5 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• to garnish: 1/2 cup chopped roasted hazelnuts

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350F and roast whole hazelnuts on a sheet pan for 10-15 minutes until toasted.

In a large skillet, melt the butter and saute the vegetables for 10-15 minutes, until softened.

Stir in the flour, salt and pepper and stir to cook. Add water, chicken broth, and 1 cup of roasted hazelnuts (skins removed- once they are toasted put them in a clean kitchen towel and “rough them up” to remove the skins).  Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Use an immersion blender to blend the soup into a smooth soup, then strain the soup through a sieve (the texture of the ground nuts is not pleasant, but adds a beautiful flavor- straining is necessary for a smooth textured soup).

Return the soup (strained liquid) to the stove in a clean pot and add the heavy whipping cream, heat through and adjust the flavor with additional salt and pepper if desired.  Serve in  soup bowls and garnish with chopped toasted hazelnuts.

Printable Recipe

Parsnips:

 

 

 

 

Hazelnuts:

 

 

 

 

 

Leeks:

Tangled Menu: Part One

In celebration of the movie, “Tangled” being released to DVD I created a Tangled inspired menu.

What tie does this have to the movie? If you saw the movie you may remember that a skillet was used as a weapon.  This dinner was prepared in a skillet.

I seasoned boneless skinless chicken breast halves with salt and pepper and browned them in a hot skillet in olive oil until they were golden brown on both sides.  I then transferred them to a baking dish to complete cooking in a preheated oven at 350F  for about 20-25 minutes.

Meanwhile, I brought a large pot of water to  a boil and cooked baby dutch potatoes until fork tender (about 10-15 minutes).  I drained the potatoes and reheated the skillet that I had seared my chicken in.  I added 2 Tablespoons of olive oil to the hot skillet and fried the potatoes until they were slightly browned.  I seasoned with ground sea salt and pepper and to finish them, sprinkled parsley flakes on them.

After the potatoes were done and the chicken was fully cooked.  I pushed the potatoes to one side and placed the chicken in the skillet and served it in the skillet.

The kids loved the connection to the movie.

Part 2: Hazelnut Parsnip Soup … coming soon to a blog near you (this one).

Lemon Yogurt Cake

I love cookbooks.  I have more cookbooks than is legal in the State of California.  Shhh please don’t tell!  I first discovered Ina Garten by watching the Food Network on TV.  Her show is “The Barefoot Contessa”.  After watching her on tv and trying some of her recipes, I purchased several of her cookbooks (okay, I admit I have all four!)  In one of them was a recipe for Lemon Yogurt Cake.  This sounded a lot like the lemon loaf that is sold at the local (large chain) coffee shop.  I made a few changes to the recipe.  Since I like a strong lemon taste in the frosting, I added lemon zest to the glaze.  I also increased the powdered sugar in the glaze so it is thicker.  I had to bake it 10 minutes longer than the recipe called for as it was not done after 50 minutes.  Every oven is different though, so your loaf if you try this recipe may be done at the 50 minute mark.  Use a large skewer to test the cake in several places, if the skewer is wet, bake it longer and re-test.  I also changed the yogurt from plain to Vanilla and omitted the vanilla in the cake the second time I made it.  It was good either way.

Okay, confession time:  The first time I made it – I didn’t check if the loaf was done, so as I removed it to cool on the rack the whole loaf fell completely apart.  Splitting in the middle, and the center oozing onto the rack. I had to carefully wrestle the hot loaf back into the pan, because there was NO WAY I was going to throw it away.  I returned it to the oven to baked it more.  After 10 more minutes in the oven I checked it and discovered it was no more cooked than before!  What?  Yes, that is right I had turned off the oven, so I turned on the oven and baked the poor loaf 10-15 minutes and then I glazed it.  It was great!  I took pictures of the second loaf that I made and glazed.. don’t do what I did okay?  Test your cake when you pull it out of the oven to see if it is ready!!  Shortcuts are not short!  Here is the link to Ina Garten’s Book.

What makes this cake unusual from other cakes I have made is that you bake the loaf and then slowly pour a syrup into it for flavor and then after it has cooled, glaze it.  It makes for a moist and flavorful cake that will quickly become a family favorite.

Lemon Yogurt Cake

Serves 12

adapted from Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa at Home Copyright 2006 page 168)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 cup whole-milk plain or vanilla yogurt
• 1  cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tsp grated lemon zest (1-2 lemons)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, (omit if you use vanilla yogurt)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Syrup:

• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon
• 1/3 cup sugar

GLAZE:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• zest of one lemon
• 2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Grease a glass 4.5×8.5×2″ pan (meatloaf pan size) with butter.  Cut a piece of parchment paper for the bottom of the pan and line the bottom of the pan with it.  Butter the parchment paper.  This will aid in removing the baked loaf from the pan.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl.

In a separate bowl, use a whisk to combine the yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla (if you are not using a vanilla yogurt).  Stir in the dry ingredients until well blended.  Add the vegetable oil and stir until well incorporated.  Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake at 350F for 50-60 minutes.  Test the cake, and bake longer if necessary. (Mine took 60 minutes, but test at 50 minutes).

Meanwhile combine the lemon juice and sugar for the syrup in a small saucepan.  Whisk over medium heat until combined and turn off heat.

After you remove the cake from the oven, allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing the cake from the pan to a wire rack over a sheet pan.  Slowly pour the syrup onto the top of the loaf, pausing from time to time to allow the cake to absorb the syrup.  Pour more after it is absorbed until the syrup is gone.  There may be some on the cookie sheet below the rack.

For the glaze, combine the lemon juice, lemon zest and powdered sugar and stir to combine.  After the loaf has cooled completely, pour the glaze over the loaf.  Slice into 12 slices.  Enjoy!

TIPS:  To remove lemon zest (grated lemon peel) invest in a good microplane and you will have quick work of removing the zest.

Printable Recipe

 

A Different Coleslaw

Are you tired of the over-dressed coleslaw that is heavy and ‘same old same old’?  Here is a wonderful coleslaw that has pineapples and raisins in the mix that gives it a refreshing twist on a old and tired salad.  I found this jewel at a choir gathering.  I had thirds of the salad before I found out who brought the dish.  Finally, I found my friend Frieda, who had brought it… after some discussion she told me what was in the salad, but not the amounts- she is one of THOSE cooks (dump and taste), this was something I had to play around with a little to get it to the flavor I liked.  This time I wrote it down so you also can make it without all the guess work.

I call it Frieda’s Pineapple Coleslaw.  Thank you Frieda for sharing your passion with me.  My family really enjoyed it as well.  My husband even declared, you need to make this again… really soon!  This is a super easy recipe to make too – you could even have your upcoming cooks make it.

Frieda’s Pineapple Coleslaw

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 1 (14 oz) bag Coleslaw Mix (without dressing)
• 16 oz can pineapple tidbits in juice, drained- reserving 2 Tbsp juice
• 3/4 cup raisins

Dressing:

• 3/4 cup Mayonnaise
• 2 Tbsp white distilled vinegar
• 2 Tbsp reserved pineapple juice
• 3 Tbsp sugar

Preparation:

Combine the coleslaw with pineapple tidbits and raisins in a large bowl.
In a smaller bowl, combine the mayonnaise, vinegar, reserved pineapple juice and sugar and stir to combine.  Taste and add more sugar if desired.  (I don’t like it super sweet – the raisins and pineapple bring plenty of that to the table).
Pour the dressing over the coleslaw mixture and toss to coat.  Cover and refrigerate.