Festive Menu 2023

You know my motto: Must be delicious, make you feel satiated, but leave time to spend with your loved ones. (Rcp# 30, one recipe serves 5 – 6 people)

Ingredients for ‘Festive Menu 2023’

1. Ingredients for ‘Mellow Tune Soup’(can partially be prepared beforehand)
   • 1 ½ – 2 liters homemade broth (see [‘Vegetable Broth’],
     No, please do not use the instant jarred stuff!) and
     a large pot which holds about 3 -4 liters
   • 200 g sweet potato (1-2 sweet potatoes, peeled)
   • 4 tablespoons yellow peas (dried)
   • 3-5 tablespoons canola oil
   • inner part of a medium sized fennel, cut into small pieces (like you would cut an onion, makes about 4 – 5 tablespoons)
   • 20 pre-cooked chestnuts (from a jar or shrink-wrapped/freeze-dried) – you can also try 80-100g of other nuts (such as walnuts, sweet almonds or cashews) or substitute buckwheat seeds if you cannot get chestnuts in time.
   • 1 tablespoon ginger in oil (see [‘The Princess of Oil Fruit’ for the recipe)
   • ½ teaspoon bear’s garlic in oil (or ½ teaspoon of garlic in very small pieces plus ½ teaspoon of chopped chives)
   • 2 teaspoons mixed herbs in oil (see [‘The Princess of Oil Fruit’ for the recipe)
   • 1 teaspoon of smoked sea salt
   • 1 teaspoon of a mild vinegar (I used dark balsamic vinegar, ‘Aceto Balsamico’)
   • 5 + 3 tablespoons oat yogurt
   • 1 tablespoon olive oil
   • 2 tablespoons cream cheese (plant-based)
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2. Ingredients for ‘All is Quiet Cream’ (dessert mousse, can be prepared 1-2 days beforehand)
   • 300 g hoccaido pumpkin flesh (frozen)
   • 2 overripe bananas (peeled and frozen)
   • 6 tablespoons date sugar (not syrup, crystallized date sweet)
   • 4 tablespoons coconut blossom sugar
   • 3 tablespoons dried raspberries (crushed into small pieces)
   • a pinch of vanilla powder (pure vanilla, no sugar added)
   • 3 tablespoons virgin coconut oil
   • 100 g dark chocolate (non-dairy, 75 – 80% pure chocolate)
   • 1 teaspoon of locust bean gum
   • 3 tablespoons of aronia juice (‘chokeberries’, pure juice, no added sugar. If you do not have aronia juice, you can use raspberry, blackberry or blueberry juice as well. Grape juice, strawberry juice or elderberry juice will not work with this).
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3. Ingredients for ‘Over the Year’ (main course, can be partially prepared ahead)
   • 300 – 400 g broccoli (just the medium sized florets from the side of the broccoli top, so you will need more broccoli than one ‘tree’ to get about 15 medium sized florets (you need about three per person).
   • 5 – 7 small to medium parsnips (peeled and cut into thin slices)
   • 300 g creamy and spicy feta in a block (I used a plant-based one made from almonds and seasoned with herbs)
   • 1/3 recipe of the pizza base from [‘Pizza Vagabond’], can be prepared and baked 1 – 2 days ahead (or frozen and re-baked).
   • 1 recipe of [‘Garden Pan’] – exchange the mushrooms with sliced parsnips, can be made 1-2 days ahead and reheated on serving day
   • 1 recipe of [‘The Fennelton Effect’] from this month’s Ingredient Special on Fennel – must be made fresh for the meal (as it contains mushrooms)

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Preparations for ‘Festive Menu 2023’

1. Cooking Instructions for ‘Mellow Tune Soup’ (can be partially prepared in advance)
   1. Bring the homemade broth to a boil. Meanwhile, sort and clean the yellow peas and peel the sweet potato. Cut the sweet potato into chunks. When the broths boils, put in both yellow peas and sweet potato chunks. Let boil for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and remove the pot from from the heat source.
   2. Roast the fennel pieces in a pot with canola oil (like you would brown onions). Reduce the heat and add the crumbled chestnuts. Turn off the heat, when the chestnuts are heated through and you have an evenly crumbled mass..
   3. Turn off the heat of the broth pot. Remove the pieces of sweet potato (with a skimmer) and set aside. Add the browned fennel, chestnuts and ginger in oil to the broth, then blend those together with the cooked yellow peas. Add the sweet potato chunks and blend them together with the rest. I did this in five batches using a wand blender and a tall blending bowl to make sure I got all the chunks and get an evenly creamy soup base.
   4. Add the herbs in oil, smoked sea salt, vinegar and agave syrup. Allow to cool completely and store until you need to serve it or proceed with step 5.
      — Pause — → see below
   5. Just before serving: Heat the soup to a comfortable eating temperature (do not boil!), then turn off the heat. Add olive oil and 5 tablespoons of oat yogurt. Mix the 2 tablespoons of cream cheese with another 3 tablespoons of oat yogurt and stir until you have an even cream (looks almost like whipped cream). Place a dollop of that cream on each serving (plate or bowl).
      By the way: you can also freeze this soup for a few days (thaw in fridge, reheat very carefully, do not boil, add a little hot water or broth to get the right consistency).
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2. Preparations for ‘All is Quiet Cream’ (dessert mousse, prepare a day or two ahead, can be frozen)
   1. Thaw the frozen Hoccaido pumpkin chunks at room temperature (takes about 1 hour) and cut them into small pieces (a little more than sugar cube size). Scald the pumpkin pieces with just enough water to cover them (about 150 ml) in a pot with 2 liters capacity. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer over medium heat for 5-10 minutes (must be easily mashable). Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Once cooled to lukewarm, blend with a wand blender (no lumps left).
   2. Combine the date sugar, coconut blossom sugar, vanilla and dried raspberries in a bowl and mix, then add to the pumpkin puree and stir well until the sugar is completely dissolved. Let the mix cool completely, before you proceed with step 3 below.
   3. Add the frozen overripe banana cut into chunks. Blend with a wand blender until smooth.
   4. Heat the virgin coconut oil in a water bath (for instructions on how to melt the coconut oil, see [‘Lilienthal Love Cake‘], ‘Preparations for Frosting’). Add the warm coconut oil to the pumpkin paste and stir well.
   5. Use the same pan you used to melt the coconut oil to warm the chocolate in a water bath. Do not overheat (for instructions on how to melt the chocolate, see [‘Lilienthal Love Cake‘], ‘Preparations for Frosting’). Give the chocolate time to melt, do not overheat.
   6. Dissolve the locust bean gum in the aronia juice and stir until the liquid has absorbed all the powder and you have a smooth paste. Add three tablespoons of the blended mixture (from step 4 above) to the paste and mix evenly. Then add the new mix to the rest of the mixture and stir well (no aronia cream fragments in the cream, use wand blender, if necessary). Finally, add the melted chocolate to the cream by slowly letting it flow in while you fold it in carefully until you have a creamy mousse with an even dark color (you may need some help to hold the chocolate pot while you mix).
   7. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving. You can make the mousse a day or two ahead, but not much more than that, as it may start to disintegrate after that. Before serving, stir gently to make sure everything is evenly mixed. If necessary, you can stir in a little oat yogurt (depending on the quality and ripeness of the pumpkin) to integrate it better. After that, you may need to add some sweetness (use rice syrup, it’s pretty tasteless otherwise). If you also need a sour note, you can use agave syrup instead, but not too much or it will overwhelm the other flavors.
      You can add a special touch to this mousse by topping it with grated white chocolate (or your favorite holiday chocolate). By the way: you can also freeze this mousse for a few days (right after cooling from step 6, thaw in fridge).
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3. Preparations for ‘Over the Year’ (main course, can be partially prepared ahead)
   1. Prepare the dough for the Pizza Vagabond pizza base, but do not roll it out on a baking sheet, instead form dough patties the size of a muffin hole in diameter and about 1-2 fingers high and place them in greased muffin liners/sheets with integrated muffin liners. Use paper cups in muffin liners or silicone cups because the dough will stick. Make a small hole in the middle of the dough so that the muffins will have a small indentation in the center.
   2. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (pure convection) and bake the muffins for 30 minutes, then remove from the muffin pan and let cool. If the edges of the muffins stick to the greased muffin tray, loosen them immediately after baking. Note that you will need about three cupcakes per person.
   3. Cut off the bottom of the broccoli stems to make little spikes (you will need to ‘plant’ them in the muffins later). Scald the broccoli stalks with hot water in a saucepan and cook for 8-10 minutes until they begin to turn bright green. Remove and rinse with very cold water (as you would cooked pasta or eggs). Set the cooked broccoli aside.
   4. Prepare the Garden Pan, but substitute parsnips for the mushrooms in this recipe. Set aside to reheat just before serving.
   5. Prepare the sauce for ‘The Fennelton Effect’ (except for the yogurt and olive oil) and set aside. Clean and cut the mushrooms for this dish and refrigerate them.
   6. Cut the feta into blocks (150 g packs make a maximum of 9 blocks, but it works better with 6 blocks per 150 g pack).
   7. Preheat the oven to 180°C (convection plus top and bottom heat). Place all the pre-baked muffins (made from the Pizza Vagabond pizza base dough, see above) on a cool baking sheet lined with parchment paper (grease if necessary). Place the cheese block on top of the muffins and use a skewer to make a small hole in the center of each cheese block on the muffin. Bake the muffins for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and turn off the heat (leave the light on so you can see inside later).
   8. Prepare the mushrooms from ‘The Fennelton Effect’ and start reheating the ‘Garden Pan’.
   9. ‘Plant’ the broccoli florets in the cheese on top of the muffins and return the muffins to the oven. Bake on the middle rack of the cooling oven for another 8 – 10 minutes.
   10. To Serve:
       1. Carefully reheat the sauce for the ‘Fennelton Effect’, but only to a moderate heat (eating temperature), then turn off and add the olive oil and yogurt. Pour the sauce into a sauce boat.
       2. Arrange the broccoli islands (muffins with cheese and broccoli florets) on a large plate.
       3. If you are sure you are going to eat all of the Garden Pan and mushrooms from The Fennelton Effect, you can place them together on a platter. If not, keep them separate (the mushrooms in this menu must be eaten after preparation, they cannot be reheated).

Makes 5-6 servings. If you have more people to serve (as we usually do on festive occasions – just multiply the amounts listed by the appropriate ratio).

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Side Notes:

• With this 30th recipe post, I am signing off from the active part of the Parsley-Lane Blog for this year. You will find a seasonal post [‘Christmas all Around‘] to accompany this recipe today and a review of the year next week [‘Wrapped up with a Bow‘], but I have already prepared both. As well as the last two episodes of ‘The Blue Dew’ with Salty & Cara [Christmas Special Parts I & II].
  Because now I have more important things to do: Spending time with my family and friends.
  Have a wonderful holiday season! May there be peaceful times for us all!