Mushroom Soup

 

I am hoping that at least some parents would be in the situation I was in this evening.  My son got home from school and informed us that the key to his cycle lock was broken and hence he could not get his cycle back from the bus stop where he usually leaves it before he boards the bus to school.  So after dinner, equipped with a torch, some spare keys, a few tools and Narco, who is our dear AmStaff dog, my husband and I walked to the bus stop to take a look at the cycle and figure out how to get it home.  The first few minutes we spent we spent with the keys trying to see if any of them fit into the lock.  As luck would have it, none did.  Then we looked at the pole to which the cycle was chained.  We tried to find a way to perhaps move the cycle up and take it over the pole and get it loose.  Of course, the bus stop is on a busy motor way.  So all the while we have been trying these tricks with people going up and down the busy road and I am sure wondering what we were doing.  Surely you could not have such shameless cycle thieves!  When all our options wore out and we were unable to get the cycle loose, we had to resort to cutting the cycle lock with the tools we had.  So while I was holding the torch, my husband spent the next 10 minutes gradually cutting through the wire.  While we were just almost finishing, I saw a police van approaching and thought, “We have been reported!  What do we do now?” But the van just passed by us without even giving us another glance.  A few more cuts through the wire and the cycle was good to ride home.  I am not sure how would we have proved our innocence had we been reported to the police.  We had the broken key – but I am not sure if we would be believed.  Nonetheless it was an amusing evening and I got to share it with all of you.

I always use white mushrooms for my food. However the other day I came across some brown mushrooms and tried them for my soup and they turned out equally nice.  The colour of the soup was a bit brownish, and you can lighten it if you do not like the colour with some cream at the end.  I kept the same colour while serving because I kind of liked it – went with the winter and cold we have here at the moment.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

 

300 grams button mushrooms

¾  liter vegetable stock

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 bay leaves

6 flakes garlic, chopped

1 medium sized white onion, chopped

1 cup low fat milk

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

2 tablespoons fresh cream

Salt and black pepper to taste

Method:

1. Slice the mushrooms.  Keep 100 grams of this aside for use later.
2. Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel and when hot, add the bay leaves.  
3. Now add the garlic and onions and sauté for 5 minutes.  
4. Now add the 200 grams of mushrooms and sauté for another 5 minutes.  Take off the fire.  Remove the bay leaves and leave to cool.  
5. When cool, pureé and keep aside.  In another vessel, heat the butter and add the flour.  
6. When light brown in colour, add the milk gradually and keep stirring.  
7. Keep on low flame and stir continuously till it becomes thick.  
8. Add the stock and the mushroom pureé to this and cook for another 5 minutes.  
9. Add salt and pepper to taste.  
10. Add the remaining 100 grams of mushrooms and immediately take off the fire and serve hot garnished with cream.