Among all the dishes which one can find which are really easy to make I think that Soups are may be the easiest. For one thing they are usually fairly resistant to being overcooked and, apart from burning the stuff by a lack of stirring while heating, there isn't much that can go wrong. Don't expect your home made soups to look, or taste, like the commercial soups you buy in cans or packets. For one thing they don't have to have "flavour enhancer" in them unless you put it in. You can also vary quantities or the addition of herbs or spices to suit your own family or personal needs. This Mushroom Soup is easy to make and, if you don't like Tarragon, it can be left out of the mix. Also, if you want it to be a bit thinner you can always add some Vegetable Stock made from a good stock cube to thin it down. If you choose to use Chicken Stock for thinning you could find it overpowers the taste of the mushrooms. You can, in fact, leave out the Double Cream and just make simple, straight forward, soup.
Cream of Mushroom Soup
8 oz (250 gm.) Mushrooms
2 pints of Water (1.5 litres)
1 Medium Sized Onion
2 Cloves Garlic
2 Heaped Teaspoons Dried Tarragon
2 Heaped Teaspoons Knorr Stock Granules
¼ Pint (125 ml) Double Cream
Salt & Pepper to taste
Consideration Notes: The mushrooms I used for this soup were “Flats”. This meant that the finished soup wasn’t a pale grey to white colour but was rather darker. The reason I used “flats” was that they have more flavour than the white “button” mushrooms. If the final colour is going to influence you then the mushrooms content can be made up of both “flats” and button, or even partially open mushrooms. . The colour can also be made paler in the finished soup by the addition of milk to dilute the soup but this will obviously affect the taste as well. As far as the stock granules are concerned I used Knorr Chicken Stock Granules but there is no reason why the vegetable stock variety cannot be used as an alternative. Please note that the chicken stock granules do contain some Mono Sodium Glutamate (Flavour Enhancer) so if this bothers you home made stock may be used to good effect.
Recipe Chop the onion into small pieces and soften it in a saucepan with just a little vegetable oil. If you want to use Olive Oil do not use Virgin or Extra Virgin but use the standard grade. Add the finely chopped cloves of garlic in the last few minutes of the softening process. Adding too soon could brown the garlic to give a bitter taste. Slice the mushrooms into fine slices and include the stalks as well. Wipe these only before slicing and please don’t wash them. They contain enough water in their own right. Add the water and the stock granules. And bring up to a simmer.
Simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes adding the dried Tarragon at the start of the heating process. If you wish to use fresh tarragon then you will need about ½ a teacup full of chopped herb, which should be added in the last five minutes of cooking. Remove the saucepan from the heat and allow to cool for several minutes. Pass the soup through a liquidiser and return to the saucepan. Bring back to the simmer and add the double cream and adjust the seasoning. Stir and serve or allow to cool and freeze. A few finely chopped mushrooms can be added after liquidising just from a presentation point of view if required.
_________________
It isn't age which makes you wise, it is experience.
