Mushroom Soup Recipe

How to make it

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• Melt 1 tablespoon butter with the olive oil over medium heat in a medium-size saucepan. Add onion and cook until soft and translucent, then add the mushrooms and remaining butter. Let this sweat about 8 minutes. Don't let the onion get brown. Add the chicken stock and parsley. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about an hour.
• Turn off burner (or take pan off burner). Discard the parsley and let soup cool a few minutes. Carefully puree the soup in the pan with a hand blender, or transfer it to an upright blender. (see important note below.)
• Once blended, heat the mix gently in the pan, bringing up to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper, and add sherry to taste. Serve immediately
• Garnish with creme fraiche or sour cream, if desired.
• SAFETY NOTE: Blending hot or warm liquids can be hazardous, so care should be taken. Follow your blender's instructions, but suggest not filling container more than 1/3 full as the hot mixture will expand forcefully upward during blending. Puree in batches if necessary. Be sure blender lid is securely seated, and hold it firmly down during blending. Otherwise, the heated contents could force off the lid and shoot out of the blender, possibly injuring someone.
• Ingredient Notes:
• Use good quality sherry; cooking sherry found in grocery stores is full of salt and will ruin the soup. Recommend adding the sherry slowly, tasting after each addition. Too much sherry can also ruin the dish as I learned the first time I made it.
• Any kind of mushroom, or a mixture of types, can be used. This dish proves, however, that the humble button mushroom makes splendid fare.
• This soup has satisfying texture as is, but I do occasionally stir in cream for variety.
• This is my modified version of a Mushroom Soup recipe by Anthony Bourdain. He uses more butter, more sherry and no olive oil. Credit still goes to him; I didn't change it much. To paraphrase him, it's ridiculously easy to make.