roasted red pepper soup

The ingredients
(first these ingredients)
1 oz extra virgin
1 T butter
2 celery branch (rough chop)
4 cloves garlic
1 small spanish onion (rough chop)
2 carrots  (rough chop)
1 tsp salt

(next these)
2 large red bell peppers (roasted, peeled and diced)
1 T tomato paste

(then these)
1.5 qt of chicken or veggie stock
1 russet potato (peeled and chopped)
1 tsp fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
a pinch of cumin seed
a pinch of fennel seed

(and last)
4 oz cream
1 oz lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

First, how to roast the peppers. The easiest way to do this is simple. Turn on two of your burners and place a pepper on each one directly in the flame. Rotate the peppers every minute or so until they are charred all over then through them in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Remove them from the bowl after about fifteen minutes, the charred skin should slide right off. Rinse them to get off any remaining burnt bits and simply pull the stem and seeds out.

Start the soup by heating the butter and olive oil in a large pot. Once the butter starts to brown add the celery, garlic, onion, carrot and salt and cook on low until soft. Now add the tomato paste and roasted peppers, cook until the tomato paste gets stuck to the pot a bit. Deglaze the pot with your stock, make sure to scrape it with a wooden spoon, and add the potato, thyme, fennel, cumin and bay leaf. Let the soup simmer for an hour, puree in the blender or with a stick blender, and stir in the lemon juice, cream and season with salt and pepper.

I garnished this soup with bacon, blue cheese and crème fraîche....