Cream Of Mushroom Soup

Cream Of Mushroom Soup is one of my favourites. This particular recipe is closely based on one from Julia Child. I saw the recipe in Mastering The Art Of French Cooking.

I have adapted the recipe slightly but stayed quite close to the original. After all why tinker with perfection?

The recipe isn’t difficult to make though there are a few steps to making the soup. As part of the process the stock is flavoured with onion and the stalks from the mushrooms, as well as some herbs. The stock is then strained off for the soup. The onions etc are not needed for the soup but I don’t discard them, I simply incorporate them into something else to save wastage. I guess, if desired they could be blitzed into a smooth puree and added back into the soup.

The list of ingredients isn’t too large either so that’s good. Basically just mushrooms, stock, herbs, onion, butter and cream as well as a little seasoning, and some flour for thickening.

Firstly the onions are softened in butter

The the flour is added to create a thickened roux. Boiling stock, infused with bay leaf, parsley and thyme, is then poured into the roux and mixed to incorporate everything.

The chopped stems of the mushrooms are added too and then allowed to simmer for 20 minutes.

The stock is then strained and returned to the pan.

Then the thinly sliced mushrooms are cooked for about 5 minutes in a little butter, with a teaspoon of lemon juice too.

That cooking releases all the juices from the mushrooms. The mushrooms, complete with the juices, are then poured into the stock and allowed to simmer for 10 minutes.

Then egg yolks are mixed with some cream and that is tempered with some of the soup stock. Once tempered the cream mixture is added into the soup stock and heated for just one minute, without reaching simmering point. The soup, adjusted for seasoning, is then ready to serve.

My Soup

I made the soup exactly as described above. I had a taste immediately, after adjusting the seasoning to my preference, and it was simply wonderful.

However, I just had a small taste since I intended to have the soup for lunch the following day. That extra day, as often seems to happen, seemed to give the soup more intense mushroom flavour and it was so creamy. Very good indeed.

Another stove top recipe is Bramboračka – Czech Potato Soup

Cream Of Mushroom Soup

Course: Stove top recipesDifficulty: Easy

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Ingredients

• 500g(1 lb 2 oz) mushrooms

• 100g(1/2 cup) roughly chopped onion

• 70g(5 tbsp) butter, divided into 42g and 28g (3 and 2 tbsp)

• 1200ml(5 cups) chicken or vegetable stock

• 2 sprigs of parsley
  

• 1 bay leaf

• pinch dried thyme

• 42g(5 tbsp) plain flour

• 5 ml( 1 tsp) lemon juice

• 2 medium egg yolks(large in USA)

• 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

• Salt and pepper to taste.

Directions

• Separate the mushrooms into stems and cups. Then roughly chop the stems and thinly slice the mushrooms.
• In a large saucepan cook the mushrooms in 42g of butter, on a gentle heat for 8 minutes, to soften them without browning.
• Add the flour and stir it in until a thick roux is obtained, cook it gently for 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile bring the stock to a boil and add in the parsley, bay leaf and thyme.
• Pour the stock mixture into the onions and stir around to fully incorporate.
• Check the stock for seasoning and adjust it as necessary.
• Add the chopped mushroom stems and bring the pan up to a simmering point. Then partially cover the pan and simmer gently for 20 minutes.
• Strain the mixture and return just the liquid to the pan(discarding the onions etc, or saving some other use).
• In another pan place the remaining butter with the sliced mushroom, 1/4 tsp of salt and the lemon juice.
• Cover and cook for 5 minutes, until the mushrooms have reduced in volume and released their liquid.
• Pour the mushrooms and liquid into the pan with the stock.
• Place that pot back on the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
• Whisk the egg yolks into the cream.
• Ladle a little hot soup liquid into the cream and whisk immediately. Add more and whisk again, tempering the cream and egg yolks.
• Pour that mixture into the soup and stir to fully combine. Then heat for 1 minute more, ensuring that the soup doesn’t even reach simmering point. Then it is ready to season more, if required, and to serve.