Mushroom Soup

Wow...I have never had homemade mushroom soup before. The only mushroom soup I've ever seen or used is the cream of mushroom soup that comes in a can, and who wants to eat THAT?? I love mushrooms. I had some cremini and portobello mushrooms in the fridge that weren't going to last too much longer and I really didn't want to waste them. Sooo...I searched for a mushroom soup recipe. I came across one in BakeSpace.com that was easy and so good. It's really rich so you want to have this as an appetizer. I'm going to look into using it as a base for a cream of mushroom soup instead of using the canned crap. It really irritates me that so much of our processed foods have MSG...but thats a whole other bitch session. Now, I'm going to give you this recipe but I take no credit for it what so ever. 

12 oz button mushrooms, cleaned (quartered if large) 

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

5 tablespoon unsalted butter, divided (I didn't have any so I just used regular butter)

4 cups chicken stock

several sprigs of fresh parsley

salt and pepper to taste

1 - 2 tablespoons dry sherry

In a medium saucepan, melt 2 tablespoon butter over medium heat until the foaming ahs subsided. Add onion and sweat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and translucent, about 8 minutes (if the onions are taking on color, lower the heat). Add the remaining 3 tablespoons butter and the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes (the mushrooms will become softer and cooked through but still retain their shape - no browning!!).

Add salt, chicken stock and parsley sprigs. Bring to a boil, stir, then reduce heat. Simmer gently for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Remove pot from heat. Let cool for 15 minutes. Take out and discard the parsley sprigs. Using either a regular blender or an immersion blender, puree the soup until it is a fine consistency and the liquid has thickened. Return the soup to the pot. Add the dry sherry (to taste), salt and pepper.

Bring soup back to a simmer, stirring, to heat through. Serve and enjoy.  It's a rich and full bodied mushroom soup.

If I figure out how to use this as a base for cream of mushroom soup, I will add it to this blog.