Parsnip velouté & Saturday's market

Last Saturday I went to the market in Apt  : it is one of the most beautiful markets of  France indeed but I hardly go on summer , because is full of people and I only need to buy food for my clients so I prefer to go to Petit Palais ,  a very small farmers market . So...now I have the time to go and enjoy myself. There's a farmer anyway who sells his organic production and were  I can also find oranges and lemons from Sicily . So I came back with my bag full of fresh, marvelous fruits and vegetables. I bought parsnips , small tender ones ( when they are big they are harder ) and I decided to cook a velouté that I served with some duck breast . Parsnips are very sweet and the duck goes very well with it , giving a bit of salty savor .

 

Parsnips

Ingredients for 4 servings

4 small parsnips

4 small potatoes

1 big onion or two small

1 liter of vegetable stock ( salted)

1 tsp of double cream

40 gr of smoked duck breast

2 tsp of chopped parsley ( or coriandrer )

Peel the parsnips ,the onion and the potatoes and cut them in pieces , put them in a pot with the stock , bring to boil and let cook 1/2 an hour , then mix to obtain a velouté , taste the salt , add the cream and mix again .Serve with some parsley and smoked duck breast chopped.

Italian version below

Coustellet farmer's market

Italian

Winter's vegetables jelly

Winter’s vegetables jelly as if it were summertime

Last week a friend asked me to prepare a side dish for a T-Bone steak , something very light &fresh, even if we are in the middle of winter here in the South of France …sunny days but cold ! I wanted something summerlike but with seasonal products ,this vegetables jelly surprised me ( it’s really a recipe of mine ) I cooked every vegetable apart but in the same water and at the end I had a gorgeous stock , with which  made the jelly .The result is a colored , savory  and healthy side dish .I think that even children would love it !

Ingredients for 10 servings:

300 gr of pumpkin

200 gr of mushrooms( champignons de Paris)

300 gr of leeks

400 gr of broccoli

200 gr of parsnips

400 gr of spinach

1 liter of stock

30 gr of gelatin leaves  ( or 8 gr of agar-agar )

10 gr of fresh ginger

A little bunch or coriander

Half a lemon

3 teaspoon of salt

Freshly grounded white pepper ( I used a Sarawak)

Wash very well all the vegetables then cut the pumpkin, the leeks, the mushrooms and parsnips into thin slices .In a large stock-pan pour 3 liters of water, the salt and the ginger and bring to boil  You can begin by cooking parsnips and mushrooms : put them in a basket as you see in the photo below and plunge them into the boiling water for 3 / 4 minutes , till they are soft but still crunchy. Then you can go with the pumpkin and leeks , the same way , after retiring the second basket you can pour in the spinach , wait for the stock comes up to the boil , let cook one minute and then draw out from the stock with a holey ladle; soak into cold water and drain ,to stop cooking and keep the color, make the same way  the broccoli :plunge the whole broccoli and let it cook  about 8 minutes , then soak it into cold water as the spinach and drain .

Now that you have all your vegetables ready take one liter of stock and put it in a smaller pan, taste the salt ( it must be savory ) Keep the stock warm and pour in some leaves of coriander ,the juice of half a lemon and the pepper. In the meantime dip the gelatin leaves in cold water till they’ll be smooth , then drain them , mix in the stock( if using agar-agar you’ll have to mix the powder in the stock, bring to boil for 1minute)

Now you are ready to make the last step: take a silicon mould ( a big one of about 2 liters or two smaller  , otherwise you can even do individual portion , pretty nice )

Pour a layer of stock on the bottom and let in the freezer till solid then begin to make layers of vegetables, pouring some stock on each. Play with colors!!When your mould filled pour the last layer of stock .Refrigerate at least 4 hours (agar-agar will thicken earlier about 2 hours)Before serving unmold on a serving plate. You can serve with some sauce that you like, but it must be a cold one .