Cream of Mushroom Soup; Chefchaouen, the blue city

Cream of Mushroom Soup with Sherry.

It’s the sherry that is the finishing touch for me. It adds that interesting flavor that makes it just a bit better.

The problem, for me, is the sherry.

Our good friend, who lived in Spain, died 2 years ago. We miss him…. We miss the long discussions, the long walks with all the dogs, the fun cooking together in his kitchen…..

And now I realize that I miss the shopping we did. We always stocked up on Spanish olive oil, Spanish wine and sherry.

I can find good olive oil here in France, albeit more expensive.

Obviously finding good wine in France is not an issue (although I prefer Spanish rosados to French rosés) but I cannot find sherry.

We both like sherry to sip before dinner on a cold, winter’s evening…. But I really like it to cook with.

So, when I used the last of my stash the other day, I did what I always do…. Looked online for sherry distributors.

My order should be here this week.

The best news is they also sell my favorite rosado !

Last month I posted a recipe for a hearty Chicken Mushroom Chowder.

It’s still mushroom season….

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Cream of Mushroom Soup

This is a light soup, for a first course or light lunch. 
If you want to use it as a sauce simply add less of the stock when you purée it.

  • Author: Katie Zeller
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 2 servings 1x
  • Category: Soup

Ingredients

Scale
  • 6oz (180gr) forest mushrooms try for a mix, forest and/or cultivated, cleaned, chopped
  • 1 medium leek, 1 1/2 ” (3.5cm) in diameter, thinly sliced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2 tsp butter
  • 2 cups (16oz, 480ml) chicken stock
  • 1/2 cup (4oz, 120ml) milk or cream
  • 2 tbs dry sherry
  • 2 tsp dried thyme
  • 2 tsp dried parsley 
  • 1 tsp truffle or good olive oil

Instructions

  • Heat butter in medium saucepan. Add leeks, garlic and mushrooms and sauté for 8 – 10 minutes. 
  • Add stock, herbs, cover and heat through. 
  • When soup is done put solids in blender. Add enough of the broth to purée easily. I used all but 1/3 cup of the stock.
  • Add milk and sherry. 
  • Check consistency and add more stock if needed. 
  • Gently heat just until soup is hot. 
  • Ladle into bowl, drizzle with a bit of truffle or good olive oil and serve.

Notes

Truffle oil is nice, but a good olive oil or walnut oil would be good, too. Or skip it.
A variety of mushrooms will give the most flavor.

Keywords: mushroom soup, first course soup

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Blue is my favorite color.

I liked this ville…. Chefchaouen; aka: the blue city.

You can see why.

It’s really hard to keep walking and not take a photo of every house and street.

There were other colors available – here a shot of the paint store.

I have no idea what they mix the powders with but we saw several stores with the same colors on offer. I didn’t see any but blue used however…..

There are several theories as to why they paint the city blue. One is that the color / paint keeps the mosquitoes away. Another is that it was done 50 years ago to attract tourists.

If the latter is true it worked.

This city made me happy.

6 thoughts on “Cream of Mushroom Soup; Chefchaouen, the blue city”

  1. That blue paint almost exactly matches the sky. Maybe that’s why they paint it. So you feel like you’re flying…Beautiful.

    I’m not a big sherry fan. That comes from old baggage when I was young though. Long story. I do enjoy a little whisky on the rocks after dinner. The Macallan is one of my favorites. But I’d never cook with it. As far as the recipe, I’d buy the sherry for this. I love mushrooms and I imagine the sherry gives it a nice flavor.

    • I use to drink sherry often… not so much anymore but I do like the flavor it adds…. especially to stir-fries. It’s still nice on a cold night, tho.
      You would have loved our friend in Spain – he collected (and drank) whisky.

  2. I have bad memories of mushroom soup sadly….it always seemed to be served in hospitals…urky dish water brown in brown thermal style plastic bowls to keep it warm for the patients who felt sicker when they eyeballed that at mealtimes ….yours with that delicious sherry would have been consumed in a nanosecond I am sure

    • And it likely cam from a tin which would truly make it horrible. The hubs was served tongue once in hospital…. He never forgive them for that atrocity. And he’s never eaten tongue since lol

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