Cream of Mushroom Soup

Yum

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter

1 onion, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, finely minced

3-4 cups sliced mushrooms (I use 3-4 of those little blue plastic containers of white mushrooms, depending on how “mushroomy” I want the soup to be)

1/4 cup cooking sherry

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. black pepper

5 tsp. powdered beef bouillon

2 tsp. powdered chicken bouillon

1 tsp. fresh thyme (or 1/4 tsp. dried thyme)

4 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

1/3 cup cornstarch, mixed with enough water to make a milky fluid

Directions:

Sauté onions and mushrooms in butter until onions are soft and mushrooms have given off their juice and become soft.  Deglaze pan with sherry and allow alcohol to evaporate.  Add in salt, pepper, bouillon, thyme, milk, and cream.  Allow mixture to heat back up until hot, but not boiling, and add cornstarch/water mixture all at once.  Stir soup until it thickens.  Serve immediately.

Now, in pictures! 🙂

 This recipe is really pretty easy.  And, like many good recipes out there . . . it starts with butter!!!!  Put your butter or margarine in the bottom of a medium Dutch Oven.  A WHAAAA???  What the heck is a Dutch Oven, and why do I need one?  A Dutch Oven is a big, cast iron stewpot that LIVES to braise, broil, and caramelize the heck out of whatever you put into it.  My absolute favorite is this gorgeous beauty from Le Creuset, here.  Of course, you don’t HAVE to have a cast iron pot, but if you try it once, you’ll never go back.  And these beauties last a lifetime, so I find that they are well worth the investment.  I used to go through a set of pots and pans about once a year, so instead of buying cheapies constantly and wearing them out, I splurged for good quality cookware that I will never have to replace, because it has a lifetime guarantee.  Use this beauty to start your butter melting.  There is something so comforting about a big, heavy pot bubbling happily away on the back of the stove on a cold day.

Now . . . some fun guys!  I mean fungis.  Fungi?  Whatever. Get the mushrooms out.  I am using white mushrooms, but you can use any kind of mushrooms that you like . . . except poisonous ones, of course. No, you may not use poisonous mushrooms, even if this is for your evil uncle Newt.  I’m sorry. That’s the rule.

Allow the vegetables to cook down, a little bit. The onions should be kind of “see through” and tender, and the mushrooms will turn a nice, golden brown and give up some of their liquid.  Mmmm.  Your kitchen will smell incredible during this whole process, by the way. You’d better come up with some excuses to give the neighbors who come calling for a cup of sugar, because they will be drifting over with random excuses when they smell the amazing scents wafting from your kitchen.

Once your onions and mushrooms are nice and cooked down, go ahead and add in your cooking sherry.  Adding sherry to a dish adds something almost indescribable to it.  You know the feeling that you get when you come in after being freezing cold all day, and the house is nice and warm?  Maybe someone hands you a mug of hot cocoa and a blanket and says “Here.  Come sit down and relax.  Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel”?  Yeah.  Sherry adds THAT to your soups.  The taste is hard to describe, but once you taste it, you’ll be adding sherry to everything “warm and cozy” that you make.  And don’t worry about serving this soup to kids, because all the alcohol will evaporate out, leaving nothing but the coziest of soups and stews behind. 🙂

 

Now, add your spices and fresh thyme.  I had a lot of thyme growing in my herb garden, so I’ve been rediscovering new ways to use it.  It’s surprisingly versatile and can really add some great flavor to almost any dish.  If you don’t have fresh thyme (Do you have . . . the thyme?), then 1/2 tsp. of dried thyme will work just fine. If you don’t have dried thyme, then leave it out.  No biggie.  This soup reminds me of the breeze that hits your face on a soft summer night . . . light and full of sweet flavor.  It’s easy going and laid back.  Don’t sweat the thyme if you don’t have it.  The soup will still knock your socks off, regardless.

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