Chilled Pea Soup

Ingredients (serves 4ppl)

    Lavender Vegetable Stock (yields 1qt)
  • 1 each white onion; sliced
  • 1 cup celery; sliced
  • 1/2 cup fennel; sliced
  • 2 ea garlic cloves
  • 1 1/2 qt water
  • 2 sprigs fresh lavender

    Pea Soup (yields just over 1 qt)
  • 1 1/2 lb frozen peas; thawed
  • 1 qt lavender vegetable stock
  • 1 T salt
  • 1 pinch white pepper

    For Soup Garnish
  • 4 oz fresh crab meat
  • 16 pieces of micro spring radish or any small radish; sliced thinly
  • 1/2 cup rhubarb; poached and sliced thinly
  • 1/2 cup fresh english peas; shelled and blanched
  • 12 pieces lavender leaves; for garnish

Preparation:

For the Lavender Vegetable Stock:
Sweat the onion, celery, fennel and garlic in a little bit of olive oil with no color for 10 minutes until translucent. Cover with the water and lightly simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and add lavender sprigs to allow to "steep" for another 15 minutes. Remove lavender and place stock with vegetables into a blender. Blend until smooth and strain. Chill stock in an ice bath. Reserve for making soup.

For Soup:
Place 1 qt of the lavender vegetable base, 1 ½ lbs of frozen peas (thawed), salt and pepper into a blender and puree until very smooth. Strain and reserve for serving.

For Garnish:

For Rhubarb:
Peel and cut rhubarb into ¼ inch slices. Bring ½ cup of sugar, 1 cup water and 1 T of red wine vinegar to a boil. Pour over rhubarb and allow to gently poach. As soon as the rhubarb is "al dente" remove from the poaching liquid to allow to fully cool. Once both the rhubarb and the poaching liquid are both cool , mix together again.

For Assembly:
Into 4 soup bowls, place 1oz of crab meat, a little rhubarb, a few english peas, spring radishes and a few lavender leaves. Bring soup bowls to the table and amaze your guests with the beautiful soup garnish. Proceed to ladle in 6-8 oz of soup into each bowl. Serve and enjoy!!

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