Smoked Cheese Bisque
According to the rules of the Maitsva Tartu Food Festival, both the starter and the main course must be suitable for people who do not eat meat. The dishes could be made with animal products, but not meat. We chose smoked cheese soup as the second, non-animal starter at Maitsva Tartu. The soup turned out to be relatively strong and full of flavor. The soup was complemented by cheese crisps, kale crisps, and the crushed roasted hazelnuts used in the dish added even more crunch.
Preparation time: 1 hour
Level: Rather easy
Quantity: 3 L of soup
Ingredients:
500 g potatoes
200 g carrots
180 g onions
20 g garlic
250 g bell peppers
160 g leeks
150 g celery stalks
1 kg smoked cheese
200 g whipped cream
200 ml white wine (Chardonnay)
0.5 tsp black pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp paprika powder
1.5 tsp vegetable stock mixture
1 tsp oregano
0.5 tsp thyme
0.125 tsp cayenne pepper
Preparation:
- Peel the potatoes and carrots and cut them into pieces. Peel the onions and chop roughly. Cut the celery stalks and leeks into pieces approximately 1 cm in length. Coarsely chop the bell pepper and peel the garlic.
- Place all the vegetables in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, and pour in enough water to cover the vegetables.
- Cook until the celery is soft. Remove the saucepan from the heat.
- Cut the smoked cheese into pieces and add to the soup. Add all the spices and the vegetable stock mixture.
- Add the white wine and whipping cream, and puree the soup with a hand blender or food processor until smooth.
- Season the soup with sea salt if necessary. Be careful when adding salt at the beginning, as the cheese itself is salty.
- After pureeing, let the soup come to a boil so that it doesn’t go bad while standing.
Serve with kale and cheese crisps and hazelnuts.
Additives:
Kale crisp:
Clean the kale of coarse stems, place it on a baking sheet, and lightly sprinkle it with cooking oil. Sprinkle with a little salt. Dry the kale at 110 degrees for about 15 minutes. Stir it during drying so that the kale dries more evenly. Make sure it does not burn.
Cheese crisp:
Grate Andre Grand cheese on a fine grater. Place a handful of cheese in a frying pan lined with baking paper and fry over medium heat until the cheese melts, the cheese crisp acquires a mesh structure, the fat renders out, and the cheese browns. Use the cheese crisp when serving bisque.
Bread slice with herb oil:
To make herb oil, mix a handful of fresh dill, parsley, and 2-3 garlic cloves. Crush everything with a hand blender until smooth and use the resulting oil to season bread. Cut a thin slice of bread lengthwise, brush with herb oil, and fry until light brown on both sides. Serve with smoked cheese bisque.
Toasted hazelnuts:
Roast the hazelnuts in a dry pan for about 5 minutes, shaking the pan in between so that the nuts get a more even heat. Crush the nuts coarsely and use them to serve the bisque.
Serving the food:
Pour the smoked cheese bisque into a bowl and decorate the food by placing pieces of cheese crisps on the edge of the bowl, pieces of kale crisps, and shaking a small handful of crushed toasted hazelnuts on top of the soup. Add a slice of bread with herb oil to the plate.
Ready!!
