With the children away, and just the two of us.........and a candle lit dinner - the effect is magical...! It brought back the magic of our courting days :).
I enjoy cooking but not in the summer heat! The kids usually provide the solution for 'what do I cook today?' by giving me their '
farmaish' (choice). With them away and a husband who turns up just in time for dinner it is up to me to decide the menu at the end of a tiring work day.
I looked into the fridge and found some mushrooms and milk, and decided to go for a light soup which both of us enjoy. Soups are not only light and perfect for week day dinners but also provide a lot of comfort. My usual mushroom soup has a lot of ground mushrooms and no flour, but today I allowed myself the indulgence of some flour and generous pat of butter too. Now I know why those things are called 'love handles' !
This soup was a regular on my menu when I was carrying my son, as mushrooms are very good for lactation post delivery - It served the double benefit of satisfying my taste buds as well as my health (I did not add flour or butter back then!). This evening's soup is adapted from
Nita Mehta's 'Soups, salads & starters'. She has also given some good tips in her site, so do check it out.
Ingredients:(Mine is less spicy, less creamy and less buttery than the actual recipe)
Mushrooms - 1 cup (Chopped fine)
Onion - 1 small (Chopped fine)
Flour (Refined or corn flour) - 1 tsp.
(I have used really less, if you want a more creamy texture use 1tbsp.)
Milk - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups
Table butter - 1 tbsp. plus 1tsp.
Salt - to taste (I like my soups with the salt just there!)
Pepper - to taste (I am generous and added nearly 1/2 tsp for two bowls of soup)
GarnishSpring onion grass (Chopped into thin rounds or long grass like mine)
Method:Heat the butter. Add onions and cook on low flame till transparent.
Add milk and water. Boil on low flame for a few minutes. If you would like to retain only the flavour of onions and not the pieces, strain through a sieve and keep aside. I did not strain as I do not like the idea of something good getting wasted.
Saute mushrooms in butter till cooked on low flame (I m/w them for 2 minutes without the butter) .
Dissolve the flour in a little milk/water and add it to the milk-water mixture. Add the mushrooms and salt and cook the soup till it turns thick and creamy.
Sprinkle pepper and serve hot garnished the way you like it. I just tossed in some long blades of spring onion grass.
My husband arrived just in time as I was clicking the snaps. It was just perfect ...... the low lights, and Taylor Swift's 'He's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar' playing on the music system!
Hmmmm........sometimes we should take time off for ourselves, don't you think?
