Soup Weather!

We had more snow on Sunday! A dusting, maybe a little more, but enough to cover, combined with the wind, it's been freezing cold and we needed soup here! This is the perfect chill chaser...

I can't follow directions exactly, never could. Just ask my first grade teacher, my second, my third, the list goes on. And I know this because it says so, in red, on all those old report cards my mother saved. But not a problem when it comes to cooking, it's usually fixable. I cooked the rice separately, but the mushrooms and leeks, in my case this time, shallots, sauteed all together. This time instead of the porcini powder, I used dried porcini's and reconstituted them in warm water, then used the mushroom broth in the soup as well as the chopped porcini's! Served with a quiche and a salad, easy dinner for a cold, snowy night!

Mushroom and Wild Rice Soup
Source: Martha Stewart Living - September 2003
Printable Recipe

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, plus more for seasoning
1/2 cup wild rice
3 teaspoons olive oil
1 1/4 pounds assorted mushrooms, such as button, cremini, shiitake (stems removed), and chanterelle, sliced into bite-size pieces
Freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 leeks (white and pale-green parts only), quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon Porcini Powder
1/2 cup sherry or Madeira
3 tablespoons soy sauce
6 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh, flat-leaf parsley

In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup water to a boil.  Add salt and wild rice. Cover; reduce heat to medium-low. Cook until tender, 45 to 50 minutes. Drain; set aside.

In a large saucepan, heat half the oil over medium-high heat. Add half the mushrooms; season with salt and pepper. Cook until browned and tender, about 7 minutes; transfer to a bowl. Repeat with remaining oil and mushrooms.

Reduce heat to medium-low. Melt butter; add leeks. Cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in mushroom powder; cook 1 minute. Add sherry and soy sauce; cook 1 minute more.

Add stock to pot; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms; return turn to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; cook 20 minutes. Stir in wild rice, cream, and parsley; adjust seasoning, and serve.

PORCINI POWDER (1/3 cup)
1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms

In a spice mill or coffee grinder, pulse porcini to a fine powder. Store in an airtight container at room temperature. You can use this in soups, stews, sprinkled on steak, in sauces, risotto. Adds a nice depth of flavor.

I made a quiche for dinner, it's easy, and you can throw whatever you have in the frig in and end up with a really good combination. This one had slices of tomato, cheddar cheese, broccoli, mushrooms and shallots. It was filled! and now my refrigerator isn't! Good way to use up whatever you have.

Mrs. Anderson whoever she is came up with the best idea since sliced bread. The pie shield. Comes in two sizes and it's so much easier than crimping tin foil around the crust. My edges always cracked off when I did the tin foil thing. Works great! You can see on the slice, I still have my edge!

 The basic recipe I use for quiche is here.

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