If you hate cream of mushroom soup you may hate mushrooms, but chances are you were traumatized by cans of condensed cream of mushroom soup as a child — worse even if you had the kinds of parental units who used that crap as a base for recipes, the kinds of recipes you'd find in a Betty Crocker Does the Trailer Park cookbook. I always suggest people try to make their own, just so they know that there is a world of delicious food out there and it's boundary circumscribes an entire globe and not just the principality of Liechtenstein.
Today's Specimen
Ingredients
- 8 cups crimini mushrooms, medium dice
- 1 cup yellow onion, small dice
- ¼ cup garlic, crushed with ⅛ tsp. salt
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups half and half
- 6 tbsp. wheat flour
- 6 tbsp. unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- ¼ tsp. thyme
- ½ tsp. white pepper
- ⅛ tsp. ground cumin
- ⅛ tsp. salt
Directions
- In a small saucepot over low heat melt the butter with the diced onion, crushed garlic, salt, white pepper, and cumin, and keep the temperature low so that the melted butter just simmers.
- In a medium pot over medium heat cook the diced mushrooms with the thyme in the olive oil until they soften a little bit (no more than ten minutes).
- Keeping an eye on the onion simmering in the butter and stirring it occasionally, add the chicken broth to the mushrooms and let it heat up until the mixture begins to simmer.
- Add the flour to the butter and onion one tablespoon at a time, stirring each tablespoon in until the mixture is blended in well.
- Turn off the heat under the saucepot and let the roux cook a little, stirring often, until it glistens and loses the appearance of the mealy texture.
- Add mixing spoons full of the roux to the simmering mushroom mixture, stirring or whisking thoroughly until each spoonful is thoroughly mixed in, waiting a couple minutes in between adding more.
- After all the roux is mixed into the pot keep stirring while the mixture simmers for about ten minutes to make sure the roux blends in properly, or you'll have a slightly mealy soup.
- Pour the half and half in half a cup at a time, stirring the entire time and waiting a minute in between adding more, similar to how the roux was added to the pot. Make sure the mixture doesn't start to boil or grow tepid.
- Drop the temperature to low and cover the soup and let simmer for about half an hour, stirring or whisking thoroughly at the end to ensure a homogeneous mixture.
Next Time in the Lab
I liked how this turned out, quite a bit, though it's possible that I had too many mushrooms in it. Is such a thing possible? I wouldn't be the one to tell you, since I love mushrooms. However, I have seen recipes that call for the addition of some sherry, and others that called for green onions either with or asa a substitute for the yellow onions.
- Try adding a half-cup of diced green onions to the butter with the roux, or substitute a cup of them for the diced yellow onions.
- Add a tablespoon of sherry to the soup after it's complete and allow the soup to simmer uncovered for half an hour for the alcohol to evaporate out, stirring frequently.
- I would really like to use portabellas next time, since they have a slightly richer and smoother flavor than criminis do.
