Cream of mushrooms

Since summer it's practically here, I decided it would be a good time to use up everything that is in the fridge and pantry that is kinda wintery, so that I can make room for fresh and delightful summer ingredients and food. See, the thing is refrigerators, pantries and kitchens in general are much smaller in Europe, unless you live in a humongous mansion. Which, in case you are wondering, is not the case. For the time being I'm staying in a wonderfully cozy and cute attic that oozes charm —but has a tiny kitchen and virtually no room for food storage. Hence the idea of using up ingredients that don't scream "summer" to me because the weather has been gorgeous lately and the warmer and sunnier it gets, the least I want to eat heavier, richer winter foods.

Which brings me to today's recipe: cream of mushrooms. Mushrooms make me think of rainy fall evenings, walks in the woods, a nice pot of risotto on the stove. I love them, but they are —at least to me— the anti-summer food, which is why I decided I had to finish off the bag of dried porcini I had leftover from the winter. And since these days I'm mostly cooking just for myself I decided that making risotto would be kind of ridiculous, which is why I made soup instead. Although you can't really tell by the picture, it turned out to be delicious. So delicious, in fact, that I didn't even tried to take better pictures, I just sat down and ate it all.

CREAM OF MUSHROOMS

Serves 4 

3 cups sliced fresh mushrooms

1 cup broth

1/3 cup chopped onion

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Salt

Ground black pepper

2/3 cup half-and-half or milk

2 teaspoons sherry

  

In a large saucepan, cook mushrooms in the broth with onion and thyme until tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. 

Using an immersion blender, puree the mixture, leaving some chunks of vegetable in it. Set aside. 

In the saucepan, melt the butter, whisk in the flour until smooth. Add the salt, pepper, half and half and vegetable puree. Stirring constantly, bring soup to a boil and cook until thickened. Adjust seasonings to taste, and add sherry.