January snow and quick mushroom soup

Yesterday we had the most beautiful snowstorm all day, a foot of light, fluffy snow easy to shovel - but so much!  Had it been heavier snow, we might have lost power, but the lights stayed on, and the heat hummed and all was well.

Instead of hot chocolate or more coffee, I made one of my favorite winter soups - quick, earthy, and warming mushroom soup with thyme.  It's a soup I never tire of in the winter and it couldn't be easier to make.


Quick Mushroom Soup

This is for just one cup, but it is easily multiplied.  You can also make this vegetarian by using vegetable stock, but I prefer the chicken stock.

1 cup sliced white mushrooms
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon thyme (I love thyme!)
1 cup hot chicken stock
1 tablespoon or so of sliced scallion greens
freshly ground pepper or a dash of hot sauce

Saute the mushrooms in the butter until golden and toasty.  Add the hot stock, the thyme, the scallions, and the pepper and stir.

Remove from heat and scrape into a blender and puree on high.
Pour into a cup and stir in a dash of hot sauce.  Enjoy !

thyme and mushroom soup with pepper biscuits

What a gloomy, rainy morning! While yesterday was sunny and cold, it was a perfect day for long walks and the last glimpses of the fiery maple trees. Today is a perfect day for my favorite mushroom soup, mellow with thyme and perky with a pinch of cayenne. I don't use any fillers in this soup - just mushrooms, chicken or vegetable stock, and lots of thyme.

Two days ago I had seen a recipe on Chezus for savory scones with parmesan and black pepper and I thought it would go well with this soup. I halved the recipe, and added a little bit more buttermilk so they were more like biscuits . Delicious! And halving the recipe gave me just enough biscuits for serving with the soup, with no leftovers.

Makes 2 or 3 servings of soup:

a 10 oz. package of mushrooms, sliced ( about 2 1/2 cups)

2 or 3 T. unsalted butter

1 T. olive oil

2 cups vegetable or chicken stock

2 t. dried thyme

1 T. minced parsley

pinch of cayenne pepper, or 1/4 t. hot pepper flakes

kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste

In a skillet or large saucepan, heat the butter and olive oil, then add the mushrooms. You may need to saute the mushrooms in two batches. Saute until the mushrooms are brown and nutty.

Add the stock, thyme, cayenne or hot pepper flakes, and parsley to the mushrooms.

Simmer for five minutes, then take off heat.

Using a blender or immersion stick blender, puree the soup.

Taste carefully and add salt and pepper as desired.

Parmesan and Black Pepper biscuits

Makes 5 biscuits

Preheat oven to 375F

Fit a piece of parchment or foil to a baking sheet.

1 cup King Arthur all purpose flour

1 T. baking powder

1/4 t. kosher salt

3 T. cold unsalted butter, cut in pieces

5 T. buttermilk

1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

several turns of freshly cracked pepper

(about 1/2 t.)

Add the flour, salt, and baking powder to a food processor and pulse .

Add the butter and pulse until incorporated into the flour.

Add the cheese and pepper, then the buttermilk.

Pulse until the mixture comes together in a ball.

Pat down dough into a small square, then trim the edges - I use the trimmings to make another hand formed biscuit.

Cut into small biscuits using a sharp knife. Mine were about 2 1/2 inches square.

Grind pepper on top of biscuits and place on baking sheet.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until tops are golden and biscuits are light when picked up.

Enjoy the day!

dan's "seafood " salad

Surprise! What is a dead ringer for seafood or crabmeat salad is actually a combination of lion's mane ( or bear claw), chicken of the woods, and oyster mushrooms, fresh from the woods of New Hampshire ( third picture from the top). Dan the mushroom man also offered me a "chicken tender" made from a slice of chicken of the woods that was sauteed in grapeseed oil - I swore it really was chicken. I'll have to track him down next Saturday to find out how he made the salad. You just never know what ( or who) you're going to meet at the Farmer's Market!

quick and spicy mushroom soup

This is such a great soup - no fillers, just sauteed mushrooms with thyme and hot pepper flakes. You can rustle it up in about ten minutes, throw together a green salad , slice up a rustic bread and have a nice brunch/dinner on the table in under a half an hour.

To make:

4 cups sliced fresh mushrooms

4 T. unsalted butter ( or olive oil, if you prefer, but butter is better)

4 cups chicken stock or broth

1/4 t. hot pepper flakes

2 t. thyme

salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste

hot sauce to taste - or just place bottle on the table

Serves about 4 people, depending on bowl size

Melt the butter in a large skillet. Toss in the mushrooms and saute until the mushrooms are browned and nutty.

Add the broth, hot pepper flakes, and thyme and stir well, scraping up the browned bits.

Using an immersion blender, or a regular blender, puree until smooth. Taste and add salt or pepper as wanted.

Pour into bowls and serve, topped with a little dill and a nicely browned mushroom.

Serves 4.

out of the kitchen and into the woods

After three weeks of thunderstorms day and night, and humidity that rendered every towel and piece of clothing saturated with moisture, the sun finally came out. As I walked to the car, I saw a huge brown mushroom, and then inhaled a waft of that intense, earthy, primeval scent of forest . I kept walking, into the dappled sunlight of the woodlands nearby. The brook was rushing noisily downstream, and, on either side, a wonderland of mushrooms had sprouted.

As I am not familiar with which mushrooms are edible ( except for puffballs), I simply enjoyed the rainbow of colors and shapes I saw spread out before me. Mother Nature never ceases to amaze me.

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