Tag: mushrooms

Quick Cream of Mushroom Soup

Here is a recipe for a very tasty cream of mushroom soup. Unlike Julia Child’s recipe (which I also like), this recipe produces a creamier, thicker soup that is very filling. Julia’s recipe produces a wonderful first course in a formal dinner. This soup is often the main course. The ingredients below make four generous servings.

INGREDIENTS:

6 tablespoons salted Butter, divided
½ Onion, diced (about 1 cup)
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced (about 4 cups)
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup Flour
1/2 tsp.Thyme
1 cup milk
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 to 1 tsp. Truffle oil (optional)
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Fresh parsley, for garnish

PROCEDURE:

Clean and slice the mushrooms about a quarter-inch thick and dice the onion rather finely. 

Heat a 4-quart pot over medium high heat. Melt a tablespoon of  butter in it. Add the onions and sauté them until translucent. Stir them frequently.

Melt another tablespoon of butter in the pot with the onions. Add the mushrooms and continue sautéing until they are tender. Stir in the thyme and after half a minute, add the chicken broth. Reduce the heat and and simmer five or six minutes while making a roux,

Melt four tablespoons butter in a small skillet over Low to moderate heat. Blend the flour into the butter until it bubbles. You may need to add a little more butter. Cook for about two minutes. Stir the milk and half of the cream into the roux and cook until you have a thick gravy.

Add this mixture to the pot and bring it to a boil, stirring as needed. Reduce the heat to low.

Stir the remaining cream into the soup. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered 10-15 minutes, or until soup thickens to your liking, stirring frequently. Stir in the truffle oil if you wish. Taste and add salt and pepper if you wish. Wash and chop some parsley.

Serve warm garnished with the parsley.

NOTES: A green salad goes well with this soup.To store it, cool completely and refrigerate up to five days or freeze up to 90 days. If you wish to double the recipe, plan on cooking slightly longer.The soup is very good without the truffle oil, but adding the oil gives the soup a more intense mushroom flavor. I often use three or four extra mushrooms if I have them in the fridge.

Mushroom Pie

I sometimes think that I owe my love of mushrooms to my father who claimed that mushrooms were poisonous. Since we ate them when they were hidden in my mother’s tuna noodle casserole and none of us died, I decided that my father had to be wrong at least about some mushrooms. Like many sons, I rebelled in small ways, one of which was to develop a craving for mushrooms when I became a teenager.

I ordered pepperoni and mushroom pizzas and spent the extra dollar to top our steaks with mushrooms when my prom date and I were having dinner at a local supper club. I liked the taste of mushrooms and knew that many were considered delicacies. Mrs. Hanus, our neighbor who picked wild mushrooms and cooked many dishes with them, told me when I was eight or nine years old that her parents used to sell some kinds of mushrooms for as much as a dollar a pound. I was impressed.

Mrs. Hanus added mushrooms to her pot roast and gravy, she made mushroom soup that didn’t come out of a can and she even baked mushrooms with buckwheat to make a kind of hot dish. Although I never saw one in her kitchen, I would not be surprised if she also made mushroom pies. I am certain that she would have if she had known this recipe.

If you like mushrooms as much as I do, and if you want to observe a Meatless Monday once in a while, this mushroom pie is a tasty choice.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 – 3/4 lb. mushrooms
1 large onion (3 to 4 inches in diameter)
1 medium clove garlic
2 T olive oil
1 T butter
1/2 tsp. cider vinegar
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. oregano
Pinches of crushed red pepper and salt
1 cup mozzarella cheese
4 oz. Neufchatel or cream cheese
1 large egg
1 T all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
2 T grated Parmesan cheese
1 nine or ten-inch pie crust

PROCEDURE:

Line a nine-inch pie plate with a pie crust. Here is my recipe for Plain Pie Crust

Preheat the oven to 350º.

Clean and slice the mushrooms and set them aside in a bowl. Grate and set aside a cup of mozzarella cheese.

Remove the dry outer layers on the onion and garlic clove. Slice the onion in half lengthwise, then cut each half crosswise into thin slices. Mince the garlic.

Heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet over moderate heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook for two or three minutes, then stir in the vinegar, lemon juice, basil, oregano, red pepper and salt. Reduce the heat and continue cooking for four minutes.

Add the mushrooms to the onion and garlic in the skillet and cook for about
three more minutes over moderate heat. Remove the skillet from the heat to let the vegetables cool to a warm room temperature.

While the vegetables are cooling, blend the Neufchatel or cream cheese with the egg. Add the flour and milk and beat until you have a smooth batter.

When the vegetable mixture is cool, stir in the mozzarella cheese and spoon the mixture into the pie crust. Spread the cream cheese topping evenly over the vegetables and sprinkle the pie with grated Parmesan cheese.

Set the pie on a center shelf in the oven and bake for forty to forty-five minutes. Check for doneness at forty minutes. If a table knife inserted near the center of the pie comes out clean, the pie is done. If it does not, cook another five minutes or so.

Cool the pie on a rack for a few minutes before serving.

NOTES: You can use either white button or baby bella mushrooms, but I think that the bellas have more flavor. You could use half of each. Incidentally, baby bella is the more common name of the Cremino or Cremini mushroom in the United States.

Use a ten-inch pie plate if you use three-quarters of a pound of mushrooms.