gourmet babble

• 1/4 tsp thyme (French Select)
• 1/2 tsp tarragon
• 1/4 tsp Turkish bay leaf, ground or 2 whole Turkish bay leaves
• 1/8 tsp or less nutmeg, ground
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 2 cloves roasted garlic, cut in half
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups cremini and shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 can (14.5 oz) chicken broth
• 1/2 - 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbsp rye flour
• fresh ground black or mixed pepper to taste

Heat a heavy, medium-sized pan or pot to medium and melt the butter. Add the shallots and sauté until soft. Add the mushrooms, roasted garlic, and herbs and spices; cook, stirring often, until most of the mushroom liquid has evaporated and they have darkened (perhaps 5-10 minutes). Add a cup of broth and stir while heating to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Slowly whisk in the flour, attempting to keep it well-mixed and avoiding clumps. Whisk until well-mixed, cover, and let simmer for 20 minutes. Remove soup from pot and puree in food processor in small batches. When completely smooth, return to pot and let warm back to simmer. Whisk in remaining broth, cover, and let simmer for 5 minutes. Uncover and stir in cream slowly; cover and let simmer for another 10 minutes. Serve.

Notes: 1 cup of cream, which is what I used, was way too much for the amount of mushrooms and broth I had. For the levels I give in this recipe, I'd lean more towards 1/2 cup of cream. However, all that fat makes it an excellent base for hot sauces on a serving by serving basis. Even highly spicy ones like habanero-based sauces can be used; the cream allows the flavor of the sauce to really shine through, rather than just the heat.

Sodium is dependent on the broth and the cream. In the pot I made, which will probably serve 4 (maybe more), there was 180 mg of sodium. This comes to 45mg of sodium per serving.

Because of the subtlety of the flavors, this is a recipe where you definitely notice the lack of salt and feel a void. I wonder if something with acidic qualities, like a mild vinegar, could be used to offset that. That was definitely a plus I noticed when I experimented with different hot sauces in the soup base.

All in all, this was a more elegant and refined mushroom soup than the last one I made, but too creamy. The flavors were gentle and nicely complementary of the woodsy nature of the mushrooms. I would have liked to use a truffle-infused oil to dress the top, but I already had too much cream in it, and the current bottle we have open is, I suspect, marginal if not outright rancid.

This was influenced by a Wolfgang Puck recipe from the October 18, 2006 Chicago Tribune and a recipe in a Williams-Sonoma Thanksgiving catalog.