Cream Of Mushroom Soup

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.

Spooky Halloween Trick or Treat

What are you planning on this year Halloween which is just two days away on Sunday, 31 October 2010? This year there are a lot of exciting Halloween activities found in most tourist attractions such as Singapore Night Safari, Sentosa (spooky event) or even some restaurants or pubs are having Halloween parties and special dining menu to brings up the spooky atmosphere.

For this coming Halloween, I would like to share with you our quick and easy "not so" spooky Halloween treat which is the "Pumpkin Soup" and "Spooky Pizza".

Cream Of Salmon & Mushroom Soup

Cooking western style of soup is never to be on my soup making list because I always have a concept that it will be a hard time to prepare western soup due to their list ingredients and cooking process. But today, I finally have the courage to try out this simple and easy Cream of Salmon & Mushroom Soup which require the most simplest list of ingredients in most pantry and fridge.


This soup come in just warm and nice for this rainy Sunday afternoon. It's so simple to prepare and yet it's full of nutrition with the combination of seafood and vegetables. This is also a healthy version without using Cream to thicken the soup base. In order to make this lunch more fulfilling, I served it with a few slices of butter toast.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
1 Small Piece of Salmon Fillet, around 150g
6 - 8 Small Button Mushroom, halves
1/2 Medium Onion, diced
6 Small Broccoli Floret

Seasoning & Sauce:
Some Olive Oil & Salt
10g Butter
1/2 Tablespoon Plain Flour
350ml - 400ml Fresh Milk

Methods:
1. Removed the skin from the salmon fillet, and cut it into equal cubes sizes around 1.5".
2. Rinse and peel off the skin from the button mushroom, halves it and diced the onion.
3. Blanch the broccoli florets in light salted water for about 30 seconds, removed and rinse with cold water.
4. Pre-heat a pan with about 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil, and pan-fry the salmon cubes for a about 1 minute on each side until cook through, season with pinch of salt during the process. Remove and set side.
5. Next add in another 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil, saute the diced onion until almost soft then add in the mushroom and stir-fry for a about 20 seconds and remove.
6. Use the kitchen paper towel to clean up the pan then add in the butter and saute on low heat until it melt completely then stir in the flour slowly and fry for a few seconds before gradually add in the milk and continue to stir till it thicken.(if the milk starts to turn into lumps don't worry, you can use a whisk to stir in or add in a little bit more milk to thin it)
7. When the salt is done, season it with some salt or stock cubes(if you prefer a stronger taste), then add in the broccoli, onion and mushrooms then give it a quick stir then return it to the heat for a few seconds.
8. Quickly at in the salmon and stir gently so as not to break up the cubes.
9. Remove from heat and served it with either butter or garlic toasts.

Notes:
a) If you don't like salmon, you can replace it with cubes chicken thigh/fillet.
b) You can either served it with toast or cooked pasta or spaghetti