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The Food Guys for March 28, 2010
11:20 AM - 11:30 AM
Today's Highlight: “Cream Soups”
"Cream of Mushroom Soup"
The best supermarket mushrooms to use are the cremini. They have brown caps and are about the same size as white mushrooms, but they taste a lot better. For the final enrichment, which gives the soup a smooth richness without oodles of calories, you can use crème fraiche or heavy cream or sour cream. Crème fraiche is a naturally matured cream that has a deliciously nutty taste. You can find it at the Good Food Store (Alta Dena brand).
Soup Base
5 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 to 1 ½ cups minced white part of leek or onion or a combination
6 cups milk (low-fat or whole)
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
Salt and pepper (white pepper, if you have it)
Soup Additions
1 pound mushrooms, cremini preferred, cleaned and diced (4 to 5 cups)
3/4 teaspoon dried tarragon, crumbled
½ cup crème fraiche or heavy cream or sour cream
Drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice, if needed
Garnish
Sliced fresh mushrooms sautéed in butter
For the soup base, set a 5-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add the butter, and when melted and bubbling, add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon for 2 to 3 minutes to cook the flour without letting it brown. Stir in the leek and/or onion to make a pasty mixture, cover the pan, and reduce heat to medium low. Cook slowly, stirring 2 or 3 times, until vegetables are almost tender, 7 to 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the milk and stock in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until very hot.
Add 1 cup of the hot liquid to the vegetables and whisk in until mixture is smooth and slightly thickened. Add remaining hot liquid all at once and whisk in. Soup base will thin out. Cook over medium low heat, uncovered, stirring often with the wooden spoon, until the liquid is thick enough to coat the spoon with a thin film, about 10 minutes. If you swipe the film with a finger, it will leave a bare track (see video). It’s important to stir often to prevent the milk from scorching. Low fat (1 percent) and reduced fat (2 percent) milk take longer to reach the proper consistency than whole milk because of their greater water content.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Add the mushrooms and tarragon and cook slowly, stirring often, until mushrooms are cooked through. (Soup may be made to this point hours ahead, cooled, and refrigerated). Just before serving, reheat soup gently over low heat, stirring frequently, until piping hot. Whisk in the crème fraiche, heavy cream, or sour cream. Taste carefully for seasoning and adjust as necessary with salt, pepper and drops of lemon juice. Ladle into warmed soup bowls and garnish each portion, if desired, by floating a few slices of sautéed sliced mushrooms on top.
Makes 8 servings.
Copyright©2010 by Greg Patent
"Cream of Broccoli Soup"
Beautiful and bright green, this soup is a great tummy-satisfier on a cold night. One thing to remember when cooking broccoli (or just about any green vegetable), is that the green color stays for up to 7 minutes of cooking. Cutting the broccoli into small pieces insures they’ll cook in far less time.
2 pounds broccoli
Salt
Soup Base from above
Drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice, if needed
½ cup crème fraiche or heavy cream or sour cream
Wash the broccoli and cut off the heads of flowerets. Trim a ½ inch or so off the stem ends. Divide the flowerets into 1 to 1 ½ inch pieces. Peel the tough outer green skin from the stems with a sharp paring knife, and slice the stems crosswise into ¼-in-thick pieces.
Bring a large pot of water to the boil and add a tablespoon of salt. Add the broccoli stems and cook, uncovered, for 1 minute after the water returns to the boil. Add the flowerets and cook 3 to 4 minutes, uncovered, after the boil is reached. (Note: you can cover the pot for a minute or so to hasten the return to the boil, but be sure to remove the cover to finish cooking the broccoli or its vibrant green color may turn a yucky olive drab). Broccoli flowerets and stems should be cooked until completely tender. Total cooking time is less than 5 minutes.
Immediately drain in a colander, fill the cooking pot with cold water, and plunge the hot broccoli into the water. Swish broccoli around with your hands to speed the cooling and to fix the bright green color. Pour into the colander to drain well. May be made hours ahead to this point. Pat broccoli dry, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate if not using within a few hours.
Reserve a few broccoli florets to garnish the soup, if desired.
Prepare the soup base from the Cream of Mushroom Soup recipe. Pour half the hot base into a blender jar and add half the remaining cooked broccoli. Puree until completely smooth. Pour into a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. Puree remaining soup base and broccoli and add to the saucepan. Soup will be a bright jade green.
Heat soup very gently over medium low heat, stirring often with a wooden spoon to prevent scorching. When piping hot, adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, and lemon juice if needed. Whisk in the ½ cup crème fraiche or heavy cream or sour cream. Taste and adjust seasoning again, if necessary. Ladle into warm soup bowls, float a broccoli floret or two on top, and serve hot.
Makes 8 servings.
Variation: To make Broccoli Cheese Soup, once soup base has thickened properly, add 1 to 1 ½ cups shredded sharp or extra sharp Cheddar cheese and whisk in until melted and soup base is smooth. Add dashes of hot pepper sauce. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. Continue with the directions for Cream of Broccoli Soup.
Copyright©2010 by Greg Patent
From favorite seasonal recipes, to the roots of our food traditions, to the politics of food, Jon and Greg illuminate the wonderful world of food each Sunday, in this 10 minute program produced by Montana Public Radio.
Greg Patent won the Pillsbury bakeoff when he was 19 years old. His cookbook, "Baking in America," won the 2003 James Beard Award for best baking book of the year. Jon Jackson is a mystery writer and jazz music expert with a passion for great food. The Food Guys have also been featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday.
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