Sunday's mixed bag

Yesterday I made a batch of chicken stock (well, mostly chicken, I also threw in some beef scraps that I had in the freezer). Tonight I used that stock in an attempt to make a cheese soup (inspired by Friday night).

I hadn't made cheese soup before and couldn't find a reasonable looking recipe in a few cookbooks, so I just winged it. I started by whisking a Tbs of flour into a Tbs (or so) of melted butter and cooking it for a few minutes. I then whisked a ladle of stock and cooked it until it started to simmer and thicken. After adding a few more ladles of stock, I let the soup base come to a simmer, then slowly whisked 100g of grated mild Gruyere. Once everything was hot it was ready to serve.

I accented the soup with drops of two herb oils I made by blending chives or basil into walnut oil using the stick blender. This probably would have been nicer if made with a mortar and pestle, but I don't have a suitable one; maybe I'll change that soon.

I added the oils to the soup after I had it in (warmed) bowls by dripping them in from a spoon. This was really quite nice -- particularly the chive oil. There was something very complementary about the chives, walnut oil, and cheese. The basil oil was good but probably would have benefited from being made with olive oil instead.

Andrea pointed out that the soup wasn't as smooth as the one we had at the Kornhaus. This is probably because it was a bit thinner. I should probably use a bit more flour for this quantity of soup (about 4 starter servings).

Still, this was a really, really good soup and I will definitely make it again. It tastes great, looks nice (with the spots of brightly colored oil), and is fun to eat.

To make an actual meal, I browned the boned chicken breast (skin on) in some olive oil, poured out the oil and then made a sauce with sherry vinegar, stock, a pinch of sugar, more black pepper, a bit of white pepper, and some cayenne. After reducing the sauce, I cheated and thickened it with some potato starch. We ate the chicken with some caramelized fennel [biokiste] made using a recipe in CPV. Quite good.