soup

I'm all snuffly head full of mucus feeling sorry for myself right now. But I have the memories of a glorious weekend with hysterical ladies, insanely beautiful wild places and me hot missus to keep me cheery. Of course we had too too much food and ate ourselves into a stupor.

I think though, that the best bit had to be the wombats... so many wombats. See hungryhead for pictures of the cutest bleached blond surfie wombat you have ever seen. Damn I love wombats. They eat all the time too...

Anyway, people apparently want more recipes and less of me waffling so here's the delicious soup I made on friday night. Lish made this soup for me on marmalade night all that time ago and I was hooked. It's from the most excellent Moorish by Greg and Lucy Malouf.

Fennel Soup with Lemon and Cinnamon
Maree: "I was worried you were putting cinnamon in with those things but it's really good".

2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions sliced
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 leeks, roughly chopped
2 bulbs fennel*, sliced
2 potatoes, in chunks
1.5 litres stock
1 cinnamon stick
peel of half a lemon
1/2 tsp allspice
2 bay leaves
2 egg yolks
150ml thick cream
juice of 2 lemons
extra good oil
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp rough chopped parsley

*The recipe calls for 3 large bulbs. I tried that once and they disastrously didn't fit in the pot. This recent time I just used 1 bulb and that was fine. 2 would be good I think.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and saute the onions, garlic, leeks and fennel until they soften a little. Add the potatoes and chicken stock, then the cinnamon stick, lemon peel, allspice and bay leaves. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Remove and discard the stick, peel and leaves and season to taste with salt and pepper.
In a separate bowl, mix the egg yolks with the cream, then ladle in a bit of the hot soup. Whisk together well, then tip the egg mixture into the soup.
Slowly return the soup to just below boiling, stirring as you go. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice. Adjust the seasoning.
As you serve drizzle each bowl with your good oil - no really, do this it totally lifts the soup. Sprinkle with a little cinnamon and parsley. Yum. That'll make you feel less sooky.