Friday, January 7, 2011

Paris Mushroom Soup

Now that the holidays are behind, us Nana and I are looking forward to getting back on the routine of making the "official" recipe of the week again. 



The mushroom soup recipe was not only an appropriate choice for the cold weather we are experiencing, but it was not as time consuming as we would have thought  - which has helped us to ease back into the routine of French Fridays.


Nana's Try at Paris Mushroom Soup


Per Nana:

Dorie's recipe for mushroom soup was quite interesting.


This was a very simple recipe to make. 
 
I finally found some good looking mushrooms at our
local Giant "supermarche", as well as all the other ingredients.
The preparation of the vegetables
took hardly any time.




        The aroma from the onions and garlic cooking was incredible.   
  
 After adding the chicken broth,
the soup cooked for only about 25 minutes.
I used my food processor to puree the soup, and that worked well.
    
                            
   After making the "salad" to serve, I thought
 the presentation looked quite elegant.



  The end result was tasty and good.
  Great for a cold winter day.





Tricia's Try :


The was a pleasant surprise after a very busy week. 
I do not like mushrooms and my sons are not fans either.
Luckily my husband enjoys them
so he was ready and waiting by the pot.



I was surprised by two things with this dish. 

The first was how amazing it continued to smell
 throughout the cooking session.  I knew the beginnings
of onion and garlic would be wonderful, but I
 was shocked to find that I still loved the aroma after
all the mushrooms went in. 



And I do NOT care for mushrooms. 
I was literally wafting the steam in my direction
because it aroma was so great as I stirred it. 
 When the wine went in was the best aroma yet.


The second thing that surprised me was how
the mushrooms create their own liquid when cooked. 
 Again, since I am not a fan....I have had
 very little experience cooking with mushrooms
and I was quite incredulous when I read the recipe. 

 Even being told what was going to happen...I still managed to be suprised when all of this liquid emerged in the pot.  I took several pictures and even my boys thought it was "really cool" when I told them about it later.


I used the immersion blender Nana gave me previously
 as a gift and I very much liked the texture I ended up with .

Overall a fun experience - great recipe which
turned out to the letter as Dorie's instructions indicated.  


 While Nana and I missed trading samples this
week due to the weather, my husband offered his critique. 

 He enjoyed the soup and was surprised that it was not
 more "spicy" or onion tasting...considering how much onion went in. 

 He very much enjoyed the mushroom taste and had a 2nd bowl to be sure.
 


I had to give it a try and was surprised that it was not all that bad. 
 For mushroom soup :) 
 It was fabulous.

Nana and I are looking forward to trying the
 other soup recipes before the spring thaw.

Update :   My 14 year old came home from wrestling after the soup was cooked and already in the fridge. 

 He declared that the kitchen smelled AMAZING and insisted on trying whatever I just made.   He LOVED it.  And we love French Fridays.




6 comments:

  1. Tricia & Nana,
    Both your soups look great! T-sorry you're not a mushroom fan...but good for you for making this anyway. It was a big hit at my house! Your post looks great...can't tell there's any font issue!

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  2. Hi All,
    I went back in after the computer and I had a good night's sleep and was able to immediately update all the fonts. Yay. Never underestimate a good 8 hours :)
    - Tricia

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  3. This soup really did fill the kitchen with wonderful aromas! We loved the soup, especially since it was cold and nasty outside! :)

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  4. How did the single mushroom in the bowl go over? Even though that is how the recipe is written I opted to slice it as I couldn't imagine it that way. Was it a struggle?

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  5. Hi SisBoom-
    The single full mushroom looked pretty amazing, especially when it bobbed up to the top of the bowl. No way I was eating that one myself but I prepped the bowl for my hubby that way. He likes raw and cooked mushrooms and reported to me that it was cooked a bit on the outside (turned color)but raw on the inside. Didn't bother him but didn't add value. It was just for presentation and we do not plan on adding it again, just as he did not for his second bowl.

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  6. I love that each of you has your own take. Congrats on mucking through despite your reservations! And when the man and the little peeps like it, that is always a bonus.

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