Out of all the western soups available, “Cream of Mushroom” is always my priority choice when making orders. To be honest, this is my first time making mushroom soup from raw ingredients rather than the all time favourite Campbell can soup.Since I cannot find any decent button mushroom or suitable replacement from the supermarkets, I decided to replace it with Swiss browns that have a deeper and earthier flavour than white mushrooms. These mushrooms have a firm flesh that hold their shape well when cooked and they are great to be used for risotto, casseroles or even pasta sauce.
These are the ingredients and steps for making the mushroom soup:-Ingredients: (serves 2)
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
10g Unsalted Butter
1/2 Stalk of Leek, thinly sliced
1 Cloves Garlic, roughly minced
200g Swiss Brown Mushroom, cut into quarters
1 Cup Chicken Stock + 1/2 Cup Water
50ml Thickened Cream
Dash of freshly ground pepper
Garlic Toast, to serve
Note:
~ You can replace Leek with 1 medium Brown onion, thinly sliced.
~ You can experiment with different type of mushroom like a mixture of white button mushroom with Swiss brown, shittake mushroom or etc to achieve different flavour.
Method:
1. Give the mushrooms a quick rinse, remove the stalks and cut each mushroom each quarters then set aside.
2. Heat oil and butter in a large saucepan over medium low heat, add leek and garlic and saute for about 3 - 5 minutes till the leek is tender.
3. Add mushrooms to the leek mixture and continue to stir and cook for about 5 - 8 minutes till they are soften.
4. Next add in chicken stock and water to the mushroom mixture and simmer for another 15 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and set aside to cool before processing the soup till well combined.
6. Return the soup mixture back into the saucepan, add in 50ml of cream and stir without boiling over low heat until warmed through.
7. Ladle soup into serving bowls, swirl with some extra cream and season with pepper.
8. Serve with some homemade garlic bread.
Garlic Bread is a very tasty sides for soups or pasta dishes especially for those garlic lovers. For me I would always look forward to it to go with my favourite cream of mushroom soup. There are a lot of methods and ways for making garlic bread and below is one of my simplest way of spreading butter garlic mixture on the bread and toast it till golden brown.
Homemade garlic bread is one of the quick and easy snacks to prepare at home without much hassle. All you required is minimum amount of ingredients such as baguette, butter, garlic and some herbs.Ingredients: (serves 2)
1 Small Baguette, cut into thick slices
50g Butter, soften
4 Cloves Garlic, minced
Dried Parsley/Italian Herbs, optional
Methods:
1. Mix the minced garlic together with soft butter and some dried herbs till well combined.
2. Cut the baguette into thick slices(about 5 equal slices), put them into the oven toaster(this is what i use, photo) and toast about 1 minute on each side.
3. Remove and let it cool off a bit before spreading it with a layer of garlic butter.
4. Return the bread back to the toaster and toast for another 3 - 5 minutes till it turns golden brown and crispy.
5. Serve it with your desire soup or even as a breakfast treat with coffee/tea.
Note:
~ The reason why I pre-toast the bread is to prevent the surface from being soggy after toasting it with the garlic butter spread. But if you are in a hurry you can omit this extra step.
~ You can prepared them ahead, stored in the freezer and toast it as when you like for breakfast treat or tea snacks too.
It is always a good way to take comfort with some piping hot homecook soup during year-end cold and rainy weather. And I am sure anyone or even your guests would be delighted for being served with a bowl of this homemade cream of mushroom soup together with a few slices of garlic bread to accompany it.
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