Thursday 14 November 2019

Cream of Mushroom Soup Redux

There's an old post with a recipe for cream of mushroom buried somewhere at the beginning of my seven years of blogging. Its tang came from crème fraîche, and it tasted good enough. However the consistency was not as pleasing especially after being defrosted which became watery and clumpy at the same time. A batch soup hostile to freezing isn't what batch cooking is all about. Through time, I conveniently forgot to make it. I always suspected the proportions of butter, flour, and stock was off hence the disappointing texture. After a little research, I tried different amounts of those ingredients which resulted in wonderful mushroomy flavour along with an equally wonderful creaminess that held up through defrosting.


Ingredients
around four to six servings, recipe can be doubled

  • Mushrooms, fresh,  554 g (1 pound) I added a small handful of rehydrated porcini
  • Onion, large, chopped
  • Thyme, fresh leaves, 1/2 T
  • Broth, chicken or veggie or dried porcini 'liquor' (I used a mix of half chicken broth and half porcini 'liquor'), 946 ml (32 fluid oz/1 quart)
  • Flour, all-purpose, 5 T plus 1 tsp
  • Butter, unsalted, 90 g (6 T)
  • Heavy cream, 237 ml (8 fluid oz)
  • Dry sherry or unsweetened apple juice (which I used), 4 T
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Garnish: a few fresh mushrooms and crumbled blue cheese (I used Bleu d'Auvergne)

If using porcini whether for a mixture or the total amount of stock, pour boiling water over the porcini in a small bowl to submerge. Let sit around twenty minutes. Via a sieve placed over a large mixing jug, drain well. Put the porcini back in the small bowl and cover with fresh cool water. Sieve and drain again. Repeat until water runs mostly clear, making sure the sediment is caught in the sieve. Reserve the amount of the dark 'liquor' needed before its runs clear. Clean the fresh mushrooms by wiping them with a paper towel to get rid of any compost flakes. Usually there's enough moisture on the mushrooms so most likely the paper towel won't need to be slightly moistened. 'Srooms quickly absorb moisture, diluting their flavour so no running them under a free-flowing faucet. Thinly slice the fresh mushrooms. If large, halve them first and then slice the halves. For decades I use to go to the trouble of finely mincing them because a certain cookbook insisted on doing that for best flavour. They are actually more tasty when sliced.


Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot, preferably a cast-iron one. Saute the chopped onion for around ten minutes or until soft, yellow, transparent, and fragrant. Add sliced mushrooms and the porcini if using. Sprinkle some salt and pepper, stirring from time to time for ten minutes. Add flour while stirring well until it is all incorporated. Pour in the sherry or apple juice and give it a good stir. Add the stock and the thyme and bring to a boil. Reduce flame and let simmer, partially covered, for twenty minutes.


Remove half the soup and blend smooth (I used a stick mixer). Pour the blended soup back into the pot and add the cream. Adjust seasonings. Reheat gently.


Slice some mushrooms thinly and float a few in each bowl. Top the slices with crumbled blue cheese. Don't tell the older recipe languishing forgotten in the dusty archives that this one is much better.


À la prochaine!

RELATED LINKS

Health benefits and nutritional content of mushrooms

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