Moomy Fixes A Leek-y Bowl of Soup!

OMG it’s OCTOBER already!!

‘Tis the season for those orangey pumpkins, Halloween costumes and treats.

This was our first pumpkin my darling hubby carved back

when we were living in SG. There were no kids coming around

for trick-or-treating but it was so cool to have our own Jack-o'-lantern!

‘Tis the season to bring out those long sleeves as the temperature drops even more. Goodbye summer!!

‘Tis the month of birthdays for my 2 BFF in this world! :D 

Happy birthday to my darling best buddies, Farah & Ayu!

‘Tis the month before I really start freaking out about hosting our first proper American Thanksgiving this year!

I have actually started writing out my Thanksgiving menu a couple of weeks back. Laugh if you must but I think for such a special meal, one just can’t do this at the last moment, y’know.

I'm even flipping through magazines for Thanksgiving inspiration!

Now that we’re here in the States, I thought it would be nice for us to host some of the special American holidays and have my darling in-laws over. So we talked it over and the plan was to have Thanksgiving dinner at our place and then my in-laws will do Christmas.

And if you haven’t been to any of her dinner parties, you ought to know that Mrs Carolyn O’Bayley pulls out all the stops for her special dinners – from the food that she made to her table setting.

If you can look past that gorgeous cake (it was mine,
for my birthday in 2007!), you can see that my MiL's table was set with a

Christmassy theme - candles, tablecloth, placemats, the works!

Its not just the table; she placed lots of ornaments

all over the house too! Pretty!! :D

I swear my MiL prolly has Martha Stewart on speed dial!

O boy, what did I get myself into? I barely own a proper tablecloth! 

Good advice! :D

Anyhoo!! I recently discovered that with the change in season/weather, that brings about a ‘change’ in produce. Funny how I never quite realize that when we were still in SG …

But then again, we were in the middle of a dense concrete jungle so what do I know …

As I was saying, we had enjoyed plenty of fresh blueberries, raspberries and sweet corn this summer. And now that fall is here, I notice there are more pumpkins and squashes being sold at supermarkets!

 The fresh selection of local veg at Newport's Farmers'
Market in October 2011. That was our first visit to such a
market and boy, I was stunned by the colors of the vegetables! 

I have never been that adventurous with vegetables before; every time I shop, I will always reach out for the same ol’ mix – broccoli, carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, spinach, bell peppers, mushrooms. And the odd bok choy or Chinese lettuce.

I have never tried kale or Swiss chard or parsnip before! So this year, I aim to try something new each season and who knows …? I might just fall in love with a new veg!

So not too long ago, I was watching The Barefoot Contessa cook for her mystery guest. She chopped up some leeks and sautéed that and made a beautiful pot of wild mushroom soup!!

I’ve never tried leeks before and I loveeeee a good hearty bowl of mushroom soup so I just had to try her recipe out: www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/cream-of-wild-mushroom-soup-recipe

 The recipe called for 2 leeks but my darling goofy hubby bought

2 big bundles of this veg! *rolls eyes* In the end, I split the bundles

with my darling MiL, who was visiting us that

weekend! :D All's well that ends well :D:D:D

First on my list: chop chop chop mushrooms!! I used 3 different types (about 15 ounces) - fresh shiitake, giant Portobellos and good ol' browns/creminis.

Do you know that you shouldn't wash mushrooms, my dear reader? I used to do that and boy, they felt icky when they're wet! Anyway, I learnt that unless they're super grubby, then all you need to do is to wipe off the wee bit of dirt with a dry paper towel. 

If the mushrooms are just swaddled in dirt, then you can rinse those shroomies quickly and dry them. And use them pretty much immediately.

Mushrooms.

Some people love them, some people don't. 

If you haven't tried Portobellos before, you should.

They are great grilled as a vegetarian burger patty.

Seriously. Check out Paula Deen's Portobello Mushroom Burger. 

So for all these mushrooms, I separate the stems from the caps. With the stems, I roughly chop them up.  Set the chopped-up stems aside as you'll be using these to make the mushroom stock. Here's how:

Into a big pot, I added 1 tablespoon each of olive oil and butter. Let that melt for a bit over medium-high heat. To that, I added: the chopped-up stems, 1 cup of diced yellow onion, 1 carrot (diced), a sprig of fresh thyme, 1 teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper. Cook this mixture for about 10 to 15 minutes till the vegetables softened.

Then add 6 cups of water to the pot and bring the mixture to a boil. Turn down the heat and let your stock simmer, uncovered for about 30 minutes.

Pour the mixture through a sieve; what you want is the beautiful mushroom stock. This recipe should give you about 4 and a half cups of stock. If you don't have enough, just add a wee bit more water to what you have.

And now, let's build the soup: starting with the mushroom caps, I sliced them about a quarter-inch thick. For the bigger Portobellos, I chopped them up into bite size pieces. Set these aside in a big bowl.

With the leeks, what you'll need is the white and light green portions. So chop the darker green bits and ends off. Cut the leek into half, length-wise and then chop these up further into little C's.

Have a big bowl of cold water ready by your cutting board; sweep up all these chopped-up leeks and let it soak for a bit in the water bath. This will help clean the leeks of any dirt that's trapped in between them layers. Give the water a quick swirl and scoop up the floating bits of leeks; set it aside.

Into another pot, I warmed a stick of butter over medium-high heat. Add the leeks to the melted butter, turn the heat down to low and cook them for about 15 to 20 minutes.

A leek-y pot ...? Hehehe ;-D

Then add all those mushroom caps and let the mixture cook for another 10 minutes.

Hehehe all those steam kinda fogged up my phone camera LOL

Add a quarter cup of all purpose flour to the pot; stir the mixture and let that cook for 1 minute.

Then add 1 cup of chicken stock; use your wooden spoon to scrape all the bits on the bottom of the pot.

It doesn't look much right now

but the end product is just fantastic, I assure you.

Next, add all that lovely mushroom stock you had made earlier, 1 teaspoon of minced thyme leaves, 1 teaspoon each of salt and black pepper. Stir the mixture and let it come to a boil.

Turn the heat down and let the mixture simmer for 15 minutes.

All that's left now is for you to add 1 cup each of half-and-half and heavy cream, and half a cup of minced fresh flat-leaf parsley. Stir the mixture, season if necessary and let it heat through (do not let it boil).

And there you have it :D:D:D A beautiful concoction of earthy goodness that is the Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup!!

Our dinner that evening: 

Grilled Albacore Tuna in Teriyaki Sauce, 

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup and No-Knead Dinner Rolls!

I made this soup to go with the beautiful fresh Albacore Tuna which my darling in-laws had brought for us that weekend; the tuna was marinated in teriyaki sauce and then grilled quickly so it's all nice and seared outside yet pink in the middle.

My MiL also helped me prepare some fresh no-knead dinner rolls for the soup. There is just nothing better than some buttery, flaky rolls to dunk into that bowl of goodness.

When the cooler weather comes a'knocking,

I just love simple dinners of hearty soups and dinner rolls!

The above recipe made enough soup for 6 adults and a lunch leftover for 1 hungry Moomy. 

And y'know what ... I love leeks! It smells like onion but when cooked, it has a wonderful sweetness to it. I enjoyed it so much I actually looked for another recipe to cook noodles with leeks ...

But let's save that for another post, OK? :D

So go ahead ... make this pot of soup for dinner tonight. You'll enjoy it just as much as we did :D:D:D

Toodles for now, y'all!!