my mushroom soup is shiny

So let me start off by saying that I meant to post this on Saturday. I blame the delay on the red wine I decided to let keep me company as I settled comfortably on the couch, cross legged, with high hopes that as a result of a slight buzz, creativity would flourish, and do so effortlessly, knowing no bounds, and leave me giggling in the afterglow of finally finishing a follow-up to the first entry I've been talking about posting so many months before I actually did. But, instead I wrote half of it, took a few photos with terrible lighting, ate the entire pot of the subject I would mention, and ended the experience dancing around my living room barefoot to king floyd's Choice Cuts album, half empty bottle of wine in hand. Buzz or no buzz, I hear the first bar of 'groove me' and I'm a goner. Ah well, I'm here now, and so is this. The soup, however, is not and to me, that's always a good sign.

The opening statement of my new favorite cook book is something I believe in wholeheartedly which is "if you cook nothing else, you could live exceptionally well on soups." This is truth. The list of options are endless, whether you decide to be imaginative or stick with the tried and true. I guess this goes for cooking in general and is a huge part of why I adore it so much. Comfort means different things to everyone, especially in food form. For me, the ultimate = soup. On a cold, wet, dreary day like this past Saturday, what I wanted above everything was something rich and steamy that would warm me from the inside out, something I could fill an oversized mug with and dip a perfectly rounded spoon into, all while wearing my pajamas no matter the time of day. As I leafed through all 200 and some pages of this book, I realized choosing just one was going to be more difficult than I originally thought. There wasn't a recipe that didn't get me going. But then again, this hardly comes as a surprise. The accompanying photos, so inviting, did not exactly help to narrow the list. As my mouth watered, I took yet another sip of wine and kept turning the pages...

As it so happened, I had mushrooms on my mind after a deliciously successful portobello risotto was made earlier that week (yes, this is cause for excitement). Thus, among all of the earmarked pages, the simple combination of creamy mushroom and tarragon seemed to rise above the rest. And it was pretty perfect, actually. I must tell you that as a kid, I loathed mushrooms with every fiber of my being. They were one of the many vegetables that I would eat as I practiced holding my breath while holding back tears. You know.......that bad. My dad did not take well to picky eaters and so we ate everything the adults ate. It was probably due to his determination to rid us of our pickiness that I got over this specific aversion and now I'm, well, a devoted fan. If you're smitten like me, I'm pretty confident that you'll fall in love all over again. Ideally at first slurp.





Creamy Mushroom & Tarragon Soup
adapted from soup bowl

3 T butter
1 onion, chopped
1 lb 9 oz button mushrooms, chopped roughly
3 1/2 cups stock (vegetable or as in my case, mushroom)
3 T chopped fresh tarragon, plus a bit extra for garnish
2/3 cup sour cream
salt and pepper

Melt half of the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onion and gently cook for 10 minutes, until soft and translucent. Add the remaining butter and all of the mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the mushrooms are browned.

Stir in the stock and tarragon. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Transfer the soup to a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Return the soup to the pan.

Add the sour cream, stirring in to combine, and add salt and pepper. Reheat the soup gently until steaming. Ladle into warmed serving bowls, garnish with chopped tarragon and a bit more sour cream, if desired.