Mushroom Bisque

Original recipe from the 1961 edition of The New York Times Cookbook, by Craig Claiborne. I've made a few changes in the process. This is a great mushroom soup. Makes about 2 quarts. Doubles or triples easily.

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb. fresh mushrooms
  • 1 qt. chicken or vegetarian broth
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 7 Tbsp. butter
  • 6 Tbsp. flour
  • 3 c. milk
  • 1 c. heavy cream
  • 1 tsp. or more salt
  • White pepper
  • Tabasco sauce
  • 2 Tbsp. sherry (optional)

Directions:

  1. Wash mushrooms & cut off stems. Slice six caps and reserve. Discard dried ends from stems, Slice or chop the remaining caps & stems. Simmer, covered, in the broth with the onion thirty minutes. Puree the soup in a blender, set aside.
  2. Saute the reserved sliced caps in 1 Tbsp. of butter and reserve for garnish.
  3. Melt remaining butter in saucepan, add flour & stir with a wire whisk until blended, to make a roux. Cook for a few minutes until it begins to turn light brown. Then, bring the milk to a boil in the original saucepan. Add the butter-flour mixture all at once to the milk, stirring vigorously with the wire whisk until the sauce is thickened and smooth. Add the cream.
  4. Combine the mushroom-broth mixture with the sauce and season to taste with salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce. Reheat and add the sherry before serving. Garnish with sauteed sliced mushrooms, if you wish.

This soup freezes pretty well, though the texture changes somewhat.