Leek & Mushroom Soup

This is one of my favorite recipes and I didn't even steal it from someone else's blog!

Last year Ben and I were part of a food co-op supporting local farming through our church. It was a CSA: Community Supported Agriculture, which is a fantastic way to buy fresh produce. The small farms have supporters (eaters :) ) and we, the eaters, have fresh, affordable products without the middlemen. Check out this site for more info, CSA.

Every Sunday we would get a bag full of whatever was harvested on Saturday (still with roots and dirt attached-yum!) It would then be up to us to determine what recipe to use to cook up all of our freshly plucked produce. Sometimes, the recipe hunting was easy, choosing a salad for our arugula, strawberries, and goat cheese. However, sometimes the bag would be filled with leeks, fennel, kale: all sorts of things I had never eaten, let alone prepared! But our farmers were helpful: sending out tasty recipes and links. That's how I discovered leek soup on epiciurious.com.

And before we proceed with the recipe, if you have reservations about using butter, real butter, then perhaps this is not the post for you. :)

And if you click on the link above, you will see that I am omitting the cream portion of the soup. It takes extra time to whip the cream and then let it sit for 2 hours and it's also extra calories that I don't think really add a substantial amount of flavor to the dish so I leave it out...and I do know that it sounds crazy to care about calories in cream when I use over a stick of butter for this recipe but there it is!



Ingredients
-Serves 8
-8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter (this is more than epicurious calls for)
-2 pounds crimini-baby bella mushrooms cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices (10 1/2 cups)(though I use whatever mushrooms are on sale at the farmers market, probably baby button and the soup always turns out great)
-3 large leeks, white and pale green parts only (the dark green parts are bitter), cut into 1/4-inch dices or rings (2 1/2 cups)
-6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
-6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
-1 teaspoon fresh thyme
-1 1/2 teaspoons salt
-3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preparation
The cleaning of both mushrooms and leeks requires a little more than just rinsing. Mushrooms are always recommended to be gently washed, sometimes only wiped down with a damp paper towel, having not undergone any running water. (Some people recommend not washing them at all but my husband is an epidemiologist and I am a nurse practitioner who actually treated someone today for a parasitic infection so I always wash.) I rinse all of my mushrooms (for this recipe) under the tap, using my fingers to scrub off the visible dirt (which is always a lot when I shop at the farmers market) and then lay them out on a towel, patting them dry before slicing them. This is where husbands come in handy: they can pat dry and chop will you rinse to decrease the opportunity for the mushrooms to sit in water.
As for the leeks: dirt collects all throughout their stalks, not just at the bottoms. So even after rinsing and slicing the leeks a lot of gritty dirt remains. The best (and least tedious) manner for cleaning the leeks is to fill a large bowl with water, pour all the leeks into the bowl (they will mostly float), and stir vigorously with your fingers to let the dirt settle to the bottom. Then skim the top of the water, removing all of the leeks and placing them in a colander to drain.





Cooking
Heat 2 T. of butter in a 4-quart stock pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Add 1/2 of mushrooms to pot, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. I usually add another T. of butter during the stirring. Then add 2 more T. of butter before adding the last 1/2 of mushrooms, again stirring occasionally (dropping in another T. of butter) until all mushrooms are lightly browned.



Heat remaining 2 tablespoons butter in same stock pot over moderately high heat. Add leeks and cover, stirring often, until soft (about 5 minutes). Then add back cooked mushrooms, sprinkle on the flour and stir until flour is evenly combined. Then add stock, thyme, S & P. Bring to a boil while stirring often and then reduce heat to low, set lid ajar, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Serve immediately. (Though I think the leftovers are even better!)