ffwd - paris mushroom soup

This is kind of tale of two recipes. There are two different steps involved in creating this soup. I'd made this recipe before - with three important differences: I used a combination of mushrooms - not sticking with the white mushrooms noted in the recipe; I used my beloved immersion-blender instead of a regular blender; and I didn't make the salad. With not the very best of results... funny color, not chunky, but not silky smooth, and no interesting texture elements. So with the new year, I resolved to correct my errors. I planned to make guinea pigs of some of my family members, so I organized to have them over (not too much of an effort) and went about planning our meal, and making the soup itself ahead, since this was going to be a "school night" dinner party. I ended up being happy that I'd done at least some of my prep early because I got home late. Everyone was still game for dinner though, even if it wasn't going to be too early. So much anticipation later - we started with Dorie's paris mushroom soup.


ingredients for the actual soup - white (!) mushrooms, onions, garlic, butter
parsley, rosemary, wine and chicken stock



after the garlic and mushrooms are sauteed, add the sliced mushrooms



the first part of the cooking is to have the mushrooms lose their liquid
then the heat is turned up to evaporate it
and then... add the wine, and let that evaporate too
after cooking with the stock, it's blended until very smooth



nest step - prep the salad
the description of the recipe talks about sliced mushrooms, the directions don't mention
that - but, seemed like it would be a little awkward to have whole mushrooms...



into each bowl went the sliced mushrooms, scallions and herbs



finished soup, with it's dollop of creme fraiche, how lovely is that?



anxiously awaiting digging in (or maybe not!)

 Everyone enjoyed the soup. We did go on to enjoy the tangerine-glazed chicken, finger potatoes and snap peas too. A great combination.

So - I have to say, I think it almost looks better than it tastes. The presentation was beautiful. But maybe it was the separation between cooking and serving, or maybe I've just eaten too many other mushroom soups, but this wasn't my favorite. Maybe a little cream in the actual soup? I don't know. I'll be interested in hearing what everyone else did/thought.

Happily though, it was tasty, and we had a fun time, and I'm super-excited to be back cooking with the New Year!