Fennel and pear soup

I guess you all have some dishes you make just for yourselves. Maybe you mix together a chocolate dessert when home alone, maybe you have your special sandwich that everyone stares with a you're-really-eating-that face while you're at it.

For me the lonely dishes are pureed soups. Yes, really. My mother refers to them as baby food. My father...well he rather has a problem with what I put into the soups. Or...into almost any savoury dish.

The soups may be lonely, but...at least I can have the whole potful for myself. I must thank Janelle of Let's talk of tomatoes for this lovely soup - half the amount made a good portion of warm food for two days:)

Fennel and pear soup
(Talk of Tomatoes, serves 6)

2 bulbs fennel
1 onion
2 (comice) pears
2 tbsp butter
9 dl chicken broth
2 tbsp flour
salt, white pepper, sugar
1 dl light cream

1. Trim the base and stalks of fennel, thinly slice bulb. Do the same with the onion.
2. Add fennel, onion, butter and 2 tbsp water into your soup pot. Cover and cook over medium heat for 5-7 minutes.
3. Add 2 tbsp flour, heat stirring for 1 minute.
4. Add peeled and chopped pears and broth. Cover and simmer until pears are soft, for 5 minutes.
5. Puree the potful (You can leave some of the soup as it is to have some pices in it).
6. Return the soup to the pot, add cream and flavour with salt, white pepper and a bit of sugar.
7. Simmer 6-8 minutes, serve. (optional garnish: fennel fronds).

The more I ate, the more I liked it. When the soup reached a kind of moderately warm temperature, I decided to start loving it. The obvious wonderful flavour of fennel in creamy consistency, supported by the faint presence of pears. If I hadn't known there were pears in the soup, I probably wouldn't have guessed the 'secret ingredient', but they do deserve the name 'secret ingredient', as they seem to somehow bring out the best in fennels.

Do add a bit of sugar! Although there are pears in the soup the sweetness - on the whole - needs your tiny support. The soup tastes good when it's cooled down too, but I'd still recommend this 'moderately warm' temperature - it'll wake up your taste buds!