Cream of Mushroom Soup

This is from the Central New York Time Warner News Channel. And they've fairly recently updated their site to include video of the segments. Which is always helpful I think. We couldn't find mushroom broth *anywhere* so we went with vegetable broth. And we picked up packages of pre-sliced mushrooms, and they were 5-8oz sizes, so it's even more mushroom heavy than called for.

SERVES: 4

INGREDIENTS:

* 5-6 ounces sliced Portobello mushrooms

* 5-6 ounces sliced white mushrooms

* 5-6 ounces sliced shiitake mushrooms (or see hints below)

* 1 large onion, peeled and thinly chopped

* 2 minced cloves garlic

* 4-5 Tbs butter total (added at different times)

* 1 Tbs chopped fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried thyme)

* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

* 4 cups mushroom broth (or chicken or vegetable broth)

* 1 cup heavy cream

* Salt and pepper to taste

PROCEDURE:

Melt 3 Tbs butter in a large, heavy bottomed soup pot on medium high heat and add 1 large thinly chopped onion and 2 minced cloves of garlic and get those going.

Once the onions have softened up a bit, add 5-6 ounces each of sliced Portobello mushrooms, sliced white mushrooms and sliced shiitake mushrooms.

Add a couple more Tbs of butter to the pan and also add 1 Tbs of fresh chopped thyme.

The mushrooms will take 8-10 minutes to cook down and brown up a bit and, at that point, sift in 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour....stir that in and let it cook for a minute or so and then add 4 cups of mushroom broth and 1 cup of heavy cream and bring it up to a simmer.

Use your spoon to scrape up the flavor bits on the bottom of the pot and, as the soup simmers along, the flour will help it thicken up, let it go for 10-15 minutes, season with salt and pepper to taste and it is good to go!

HINTS:

You could use 1 pound of just one type of sliced mushroom instead of the three different kinds. If you do use shiitake mushrooms make sure you remove the stems because they are too woody to eat.