French Fridays with Dorie
Dorie’s Paris Mushroom Soup is certainly no exception to the old adage “soup is good food”. This week’s soup-making exercise reminded me how easy good soups are. This umami filled potage takes minutes to complete, and if you use the pre-sliced, packaged mushrooms, you can shave even more prep time. The fun presentation of pouring this one piping hot over a small pile of a ‘mushroom salad’ to cook them in the broth slightly was also a nice touch.
I often make a notation on a recipe to remake it when I believe my husband has enjoyed it. Or perhaps it is because I think it will lend itself well to one of our regular Sunday family buffet dinners – a way of eating I am still used to since I came from a small family. My note this time reminds me to make the soup in the Spring when we plan to repaint the living room. The soup makes an excellent paint chip reference for the paint man at Lowes! “I’d like a slightly lighter tone of this, please. Pass the bread.”
We’ve had this treat no less than three times this week, and each night, it has just gotten better – well served by the time it spent with its flavors ‘maturing’ and the seasoning ‘blooming’ while resting in the refrigerator. Soup does this y’know. (So does stew, by the way, right?) I need to remember this more when I’m planning dinner parties and their menus.
Paris Mushroom Soup
This soup takes me back to my memories. As a teenager, I enjoyed a lovely Mushroom Ravioli at the famous Le Notre restaurant in London. hen I was there with my family, who knew where all the good restaurants were in a town that still suffered a bad culinary reputation. Later that evening, I got to review the contents of my dinner after it was presented to me in the toilet bowl back at our flat. Food poisoning. The experience took mushrooms off my menu for years while I regained the confidence to enjoy them again. While I fully support those in our group who preferred this soup chunky, I found the flashbacks unpleasant to revisit so for my mental health, I felt I should blend away the memories.
I guess I should rethink that living room wall color?
You can find the recipe here so I’m going to post it here this week. Crème fraiche is indicated as optional but completely unnecessary here.
This is what you will need:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1-1/2 large onions, coarsely chopped
- 3 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
- Salt and freshly ground white pepper
- 1-1/2 pounds white mushrooms, trimmed, sliced
- 2 parsley sprigs
- 1 rosemary sprig
- 1/3 cup dry white wine
- 6 cups chicken broth or water
- Creme fraiche, optional
This is how you make it:
- Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a Dutch oven or soup pot over low heat.
- Add onions, garlic, salt and pepper to taste.
- Cook, stirring often, until the vegetables are soft, 5 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms and remaining tablespoon of the butter.
- Raise the heat to medium.
- Cook, stirring, until the mushrooms release their liquid, about 3 minutes.
- Increase the heat to high; cook until almost all the liquid evaporates.
- Pour in the wine; let boil until almost evaporated.
- Add the broth and herbs; heat to a boil.
- Lower the heat; cover the pot almost completely. Simmer 20 minutes.
- Discard the rosemary sprig.
- Puree the soup in small batches in a blender or food processor until smooth.
- Taste for salt and white pepper.
- Pour the soup back into the pot; heat over low heat until hot.
- Serve garnished with crème fraiche.
Notes
This soup can be served over a small salad of raw mushrooms seasoned with salt, pepper, chopped chives and parsley. Cover and refrigerate for up to three days or freeze for up to 2 months.
I LOVE how you served your soup in glass mugs! Since the color of this soup is a little on the bland side, at least the glass was able to highlight the greens and fresh mushrooms from the salad. Great post!
Trevor those cups are brilliant. I love that you can see the soup and the salad the way it is supposed to be enjoyed. Your such a smarty. Happy New Year friend. B:)
I agree the soup looks wonderful in the glass cups. But your first photo in the white bowl is gorgeous-all creamy and beige !
I wish I had thought of using the sliced mushrooms. I always buy unsliced, but I am usually not slicing one and a half pounds of them! I am planning on making this again next summer too when my rosemary and chives are not covered by three feet of snow.
Mushroom soup is often all talk, no action, but your stunning presentation convinces me that this preparation will reward the effort. I love the “drama” of pouring the soup over the raw mushroom salad, table side. I can’t wait to scorch my beloved friends with soup when I attempt to do so after two martinis!
Good time!
-bg
I also loved the way you served your soup…looks wonderful! Hopefully you will be able to get over your dislike of mushrooms! And I think you should be as snarky as you like…I enjoy your snarkiness!
You are so clever…definitely a nice paint color!!! BTW, great idea to serve in glass cups!
I love how you serve the soup in glass mugs too. Bravo on overcoming your bad memories/associations of mushroom!
Trevor – how funny. When I repainted my kitchen, the annex ended up almost exactly the color of my soup (although I never realized that until you mentioned the paint chip).
Ditto on loving the glass cup idea as well!
Great post – you managed to get some lovely photos! 🙂
I love the paint chip reference! My dining room is painted the color of this soup! Glad you and your husband enjoyed this one.
The glass cup and saucer is a very nice touch! Love how you can see the pretty salad from the side.
Funny – I have a sort of dark khaki-ish room that, come to think of it, looks a bit like the soup! Nice serving idea.
I love that this soup inspires wall color- so fun!
Nice job! And lucky you for getting to enjoy this soup for three days. We got one meal out of it, then I used the rest on a roast.
Your soup looks marvelous in the bowl and in the cup! How great that you found the recipe online! I’m glad to hear that this soup just gets better as it sets because I am getting ready to have a bowl for a late supper.
Why didn’t I think of buying the pre-sliced mushrooms? (Hits palm to forehead.) Great thinking! And you’re right…it would be a great paint color. 🙂 Enjoyed your post- you always make me smile. 🙂 Beautiful soup!
This reminds me of Mug-A-Lunch. Only more foreign, and definitely more delicious. I love mushrooms and even painted a fence “muted mushroom”, then quickly painted it red. You’re an expert mushroom slicer (tip, tip) – and I’ll definitely have to make this – in a cup at that. Looks wonderful Trevor!
Well, everyone has said it, but the glass mug was perfect for this soup! Love that you can see little pieces of the “salad” poking through the soup. Really lovely pictures. I’m glad that you are over your aversion to mushrooms. Similar experience in my early 20’s with guava juice on a snorkel boat in hawaii and I still can’t handle the smell of it!
I am joining the “love your glass mug” bandwagon, and the “paint chip haha” bandwagon as well. Nicely done! I do agree the soup gets better with each passing day.
I agree this gets better as it sits. I “liked not loved it” the first meal, but the second meal it advanced to “liked a lot” (though still not loved). My living room actually is the color of my soup, though your soup is a nicer brown color than mine, which was more of a grayish taupe.
Ohhhh, your memory of mushroom ravioli just gave me the idea to use the sauteed mushrooms as a ravioli filling. Yum!
Love the presentation in the clear cup – with the salad in the bottom, it looks sensational.
Your photos are gorgeous. I liked this soup, but it was not a favorite. loved your post.
I just love your posts and photos. Homemade soups are my favorite!
Ps – thank you for your truly sweet comments on my blog!!! *blush*