Monday, May 10, 2010

Mushroom soup and tacos (eclecticism rules)

As a rehearsal for next week’s foodie lunch at our house, I made a modified version of my own mushroom soup yesterday. I only made enough for Peter and I to share, along with ½ a meatloaf sandwich for lunch. I took a couple of pictures of it, but they were terribly blurry. Heck, everybody knows what mushroom soup looks like.

There is one unusual ingredient included: anchovy. Yep, anchovy. We’ve all seen Giada or Rachel or Lydia use anchovies in the foundation of many sauces. They melt into butter and oil, leaving behind a touch of umami.

Mushroom soup (2 servings)
4 dried shiitake mushrooms
2 tsp olive oil
3 tsp butter
¼ medium onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed
2 oil-packed anchovies
2 oz. button mushrooms, cut into ½” pieces
1 14.5 oz. can beef broth (low sodium and low fat)
½ cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste
1 scallion, green and white parts finely chopped

Cover the shiitakes with warm water and reconstitute for 30 minutes. Then trim out the stems and slice them to about ¼”.

Heat 1 tsp olive oil and 1 tsp butter in a saucepan, add onion, garlic and anchovy. Cook 4 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the beef broth and use an immersion blender or your food processor to puree the onion and garlic.

In another saucepan heat the remaining oil and butter. Add the mushrooms, sprinkle them with salt and pepper and cook for about 6 minutes. Add the broth to this saucepan. Add the cream and bring to a simmer. Taste and adjust seasonings. Simmer partially covered for 10 minutes.

Garnish with scallions and serve.




Pictured above: the pork roast (forgot to include a full picture yesterday) along with some pico de gallo and tortillas in the background for the tacos we had last night.

What we threw into our tacos: Jack cheese, lettuce, avocado, pico de gallo (recipe below).

Pico de gallo
2 medium on-the-stem tomatoes, diced
½ medium shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
½ tsp Spanish smoked paprika
1 tbsp hot sauce (or to taste)
1 tsp dried oregano
salt and black pepper

Put all this stuff in a bowl, stir and let stand for a while to meld flavors. Of course taste and adjust seasonings.

2 comments:

Andrea the Kitchen Witch said...

The mushroom soup sounds amazing! I can only imagine how rich and savory its got to be. And I'm not even a mushroom fan but oh boy, I'd eat this :) Thanks for the great recipe!

Unknown said...

YUM!! Ok.. I have to admit, I didn't realized that anchovy's melted and just left behind the flavor...I've been afraid to even use them before! Now that I know though....oh the possibilities! The soup sounds great.. the roast looks fantastic! Your foodie group is going to so enjoy lunch at your house!

Blog Archive

Tuesday Tag-Along

Tuesday Tag-Along

Foodie BlogRoll

Followers