Cream of Non-Toxic Mushroom Soup

Outlander Kitchen

A great cream of mushroom soup is one of our favorites! I rarely make it at home, though, perhaps due to a bad association from that one time my husband almost burned down the house making it for me. (The house was fine and we only had to replace some flooring.) Or maybe it's because I had way too many casseroles as a kid made with the canned stuff, so I just don't think of it.

This one is chock-full of wild mushrooms (do be sure they're non-toxic, with the name and all), and creamy without being too thick. Bonus: it's entirely gluten free! I topped mine with MORE mushrooms that I fried with just butter and salt until they were browned and a bit crispy, and they were the perfect complement to the soup.

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather today we are working once
[00:08]: again from teresa carl sanders uh
[00:11]: outlander kitchen cookbook and we are
[00:13]: going to be making
[00:15]: cream of non-toxic mushroom soup
[00:19]: the reference there is
[00:21]: from the book a breath of snow and ashes
[00:24]: book six i believe
[00:26]: where
[00:28]: a family
[00:29]: is in very bad straights and and
[00:33]: they eat toxic mushrooms
[00:35]: so these are obviously non-toxic um
[00:40]: so we love mushroom soup love cream of
[00:42]: mushroom soup
[00:44]: i did have a little bit of a problem
[00:46]: finding different varieties varieties of
[00:48]: mushrooms she says to
[00:51]: use wild mushrooms i usually
[00:54]: want to stay away from portobellos in
[00:56]: that case because they're really very a
[00:57]: lot like the
[00:59]: white mushrooms
[01:01]: but i managed to find shiitake
[01:04]: and then when i had to go to the grocery
[01:05]: store again because i forgot celery i
[01:07]: forgot i was almost out of celery um
[01:11]: i found some oyster mushrooms so i've
[01:13]: got about half and half here
[01:16]: um
[01:18]: so
[01:18]: they are cut into a
[01:21]: rough
[01:22]: roughly a dice
[01:23]: for her in her knife skills section she
[01:26]: says
[01:27]: when she calls for a dice
[01:29]: she wants it to be about a quarter inch
[01:31]: square
[01:34]: they might be a little bit bigger than
[01:35]: that but that's okay and it is a pile of
[01:38]: mushrooms
[01:39]: i have
[01:41]: some butter and some olive oil heating
[01:43]: in my soup pot here she says to use a
[01:45]: large saucepan
[01:47]: um i like this particular pan for a
[01:50]: relatively kind of small batch of soup
[01:52]: which is what this is um
[01:55]: so
[01:56]: she says when it starts to
[01:60]: bubble which is
[02:02]: kind of
[02:05]: starting to buzz bubble and i've heard
[02:07]: the little sort of sizzling from the
[02:09]: butter um to add all of these things
[02:13]: including
[02:14]: all of our mushrooms they cook down an
[02:18]: awful lot and give up a lot of moisture
[02:22]: but
[02:24]: yeah well
[02:26]: we'll see
[02:28]: and in addition to the mushrooms at this
[02:31]: point we add
[02:32]: some celery which has also been diced
[02:34]: some minced garlic and quite a bit of
[02:37]: diced shallot
[02:40]: so i'm going to add those
[02:49]: there we go
[02:51]: um
[02:57]: and we also add some salt and pepper at
[02:60]: this point um
[03:02]: salt is just our standard kosher which
[03:04]: looks like i'm gonna have to
[03:06]: replenish but i can probably get
[03:09]: roasted down enough from what i have in
[03:11]: my
[03:12]: salt cellar here
[03:15]: yeah there we go we'll probably have to
[03:17]: add a little bit more later because our
[03:20]: stock we're going to be using later is
[03:22]: not salted
[03:24]: and pepper and she calls for a white
[03:27]: pepper in this usually
[03:29]: recipes will call for this mostly
[03:30]: because
[03:33]: they don't want the specks of black from
[03:36]: black pepper in this
[03:39]: has a slightly different
[03:41]: flavor profile
[03:43]: and i don't i really don't usually
[03:45]: use it very often
[03:47]: i don't really care about looks most of
[03:49]: the time so i just
[03:51]: use black pepper but i bought it for
[03:53]: this recipe
[03:54]: so
[03:56]: i bought it pre-ground too because
[03:58]: i didn't want to have to have another
[03:59]: grinder for that
[04:01]: for something i don't use very often
[04:04]: so all of this
[04:06]: is going to be cooked
[04:08]: well and stir it occasionally until the
[04:10]: mushrooms are soft and have given up
[04:12]: their moisture and the moisture has
[04:14]: evaporated so as mushrooms cook
[04:18]: they uh they give off a lot of moisture
[04:22]: and then the moisture evaporates and
[04:26]: the mushrooms can then brown so first
[04:28]: you kind of have to go through the
[04:30]: uh the wet stage
[04:33]: and then eventually all that moisture
[04:35]: will evaporate and you can get nice
[04:38]: dry brown mushrooms
[04:41]: so i'm going to
[04:42]: stir this up a little bit
[04:46]: and
[04:48]: keep
[04:49]: checking on it occasionally
[04:51]: um she says this will take 8 to 12
[04:54]: minutes
[04:55]: at this medium heat
[04:59]: i'm not sure about that i feel like
[05:01]: it'll take longer
[05:03]: but we will keep an eye on it
[05:06]: at about four or five minutes minutes in
[05:09]: we definitely have
[05:11]: started to wilt a little bit
[05:14]: and uh they're starting to get cooked
[05:17]: but
[05:18]: there's a little bit of juice i don't
[05:20]: know if we'll get more we'll see
[05:23]: what about eight or nine minutes now and
[05:27]: we might almost be there but i am gonna
[05:30]: let it go a couple more minutes got a
[05:32]: little bit
[05:33]: a little bit of moisture in there but
[05:35]: we'll see i don't think we're gonna get
[05:37]: any more really but we're supposed to
[05:41]: cook this until
[05:42]: um
[05:46]: uh
[05:46]: it's all gone so
[05:52]: you can uh
[05:53]: ignore what i'm doing in that pan
[05:55]: because i'm just
[05:58]: going off script a little bit here
[06:01]: because i have extra mushrooms
[06:05]: making them frying up some mushrooms
[06:07]: garlic
[06:10]: we're about 11 minutes i think this is
[06:12]: probably good
[06:14]: and the next thing we do is we deglaze
[06:16]: the pan with a little bit of brandy
[06:20]: and then we're going to cook this until
[06:22]: the brandy is pretty much all gone
[06:24]: has evaporated so we got all the flavor
[06:27]: but
[06:29]: none of the liquids
[06:31]: i'm going to call this
[06:33]: almost dry
[06:34]: it's been three to four minutes
[06:38]: and now i'm going to deviate from the
[06:40]: recipe
[06:42]: just a little bit
[06:45]: she wants you to take this
[06:47]: put it into a food processor and puree
[06:49]: it and then put it back into the dish
[06:53]: i'm going to add
[06:55]: just a little bit i'm going to turn the
[06:57]: heat off
[06:58]: just a little bit of this cold vegetable
[07:00]: stock
[07:01]: which we have made
[07:03]: on this channel before this we'll we'll
[07:06]: get that up for you
[07:07]: and i'll link it above
[07:09]: which is the next thing we're going to
[07:10]: add anyway so i'm not cheating too much
[07:12]: here and i'm going to use my
[07:16]: hand blender for this
[07:19]: the
[07:21]: vegetable stock is just to give it a
[07:22]: little more liquid
[07:24]: to
[07:25]: to work in
[07:26]: but
[07:32]: i may not get it quite as smooth with
[07:34]: this but i don't really care so
[07:42]: [Music]
[07:50]: all right i'm gonna put the rest of this
[07:52]: broth in here and just give it another
[07:54]: whirl and see if that helps a little bit
[07:55]: more
[08:02]: of course i made a huge mess
[08:05]: because that's what i do but
[08:08]: not silky velvety smooth but it will be
[08:10]: perfectly fine for me here at home
[08:14]: now i'm going to turn the heat up to
[08:15]: medium high and we're going to bring
[08:17]: this to a boil
[08:18]: okay
[08:19]: we're about to a boil
[08:21]: i don't know been three or four minutes
[08:23]: i'm going to turn it down and we're
[08:24]: supposed to simmer this
[08:27]: for
[08:28]: 30 minutes so
[08:30]: in about 30 minutes
[08:32]: um this will be just about done
[08:35]: so
[08:35]: i will
[08:37]: i'll just keep an eye on it keep it a
[08:39]: simmer
[08:44]: and uh
[08:45]: yeah
[08:46]: at that point we'll have a little bit
[08:48]: more to do
[08:49]: just about done in 30 minutes
[08:52]: so our timer just went off for our 30
[08:54]: minutes pretty sure it's fine
[08:56]: um had to keep sort of lowering the heat
[08:59]: to keep it at a simmer but we're good
[09:02]: the next step is to thicken this
[09:04]: slightly
[09:06]: a lot of times you'll use a roux which
[09:09]: is a combination of butter and flour
[09:11]: that you cook
[09:13]: or you'll use a bermane which is a
[09:15]: combination of butter and flour that is
[09:18]: not cooked and you just put it in at the
[09:19]: end
[09:20]: this she calls a liaison
[09:23]: of
[09:23]: cream and eggs which will just provide a
[09:26]: little bit of thickening and a little
[09:28]: bit of creaminess and
[09:30]: i don't know i don't think i've ever
[09:31]: done this before so that's pretty cool
[09:33]: um
[09:35]: i have my cream measured out and i have
[09:37]: my
[09:38]: egg yolks so i said cream and eggs it's
[09:41]: cream and egg yolks mostly the yolks a
[09:43]: little bit of whites in there yep that's
[09:45]: probably fine so i'm going to add them
[09:47]: together in
[09:49]: this measuring cup and mix them up
[09:54]: she says gently whatever
[09:56]: [Music]
[09:58]: they just need to be mixed
[10:08]: all right
[10:09]: so we've got this you know sort of pale
[10:12]: yellow cream
[10:13]: and now we have to temper the eggs i'm
[10:16]: going to turn this down even more
[10:19]: because we don't want this to boil after
[10:21]: these egg yolks go in
[10:22]: so i'm going to take a ladle of the soup
[10:25]: i'm going to switch my hands because
[10:29]: right handed
[10:32]: take a ladle of the soup
[10:34]: and mix it in here
[10:37]: just to bring those up a little bit in
[10:40]: temperature
[10:42]: so hopefully
[10:44]: it won't curdle
[10:46]: and now
[10:51]: we put
[10:52]: [Music]
[10:55]: all of this into our soup
[10:58]: and stir it
[10:59]: and be very careful not to let this boil
[11:03]: we just want this to
[11:05]: sort of heat up
[11:06]: the cream and egg yolk mixture
[11:10]: and
[11:13]: not boil and mix it together obviously
[11:16]: and then
[11:17]: everything will be done let me see if
[11:18]: she says how long we should keep this
[11:22]: so she says just heat it gently and
[11:26]: really
[11:27]: soup was hot enough that
[11:29]: i'm sure those eggs are fine by now um
[11:32]: i'm gonna keep my heat low but now i'm
[11:34]: gonna taste it i've already added
[11:36]: a little more salt
[11:38]: actually half again as much salt and i
[11:40]: still think it's gonna need more
[11:46]: so yeah basically i think i'm gonna
[11:47]: double the salt
[11:50]: i do like things a little bit salty
[11:53]: but it's not
[11:54]: salty at all right now it is um
[11:60]: it is a little better
[12:07]: all right
[12:08]: so i'm gonna taste it one more time
[12:10]: [Music]
[12:19]: still i would go a little i'm gonna get
[12:20]: a little bit more salt
[12:22]: pepper i think is good um
[12:27]: so i would i would i would at least
[12:29]: double the salt in this
[12:36]: but pepper tea is fine
[12:39]: there were no other seasonings to add
[12:41]: everything else is
[12:44]: vegetables
[12:45]: or whatever we had in our stock
[12:49]: so
[12:55]: much better
[12:56]: so that's it
[12:58]: stay tuned we'll let you know what we
[12:59]: think of it
[13:01]: [Music]
[13:09]: on this episode of cooking the books
[13:10]: with heather you watched me make
[13:12]: cream of non-toxic mushroom soup from
[13:16]: theresa carl sanders outlander kitchen
[13:18]: one cookbook there's a two now as well
[13:22]: um
[13:24]: and
[13:26]: we
[13:27]: i liked the flavor i felt that it was a
[13:30]: tiny bit sweet
[13:32]: um but i think that came from
[13:35]: the
[13:37]: vegetable stock because the vegetable
[13:38]: stock had a lot of leeks in it as i
[13:41]: recall
[13:42]: and it just had a lot of sweetness to it
[13:46]: so
[13:47]: i'm not sure i would use that vegetable
[13:49]: stock again for the mushroom soup i
[13:51]: might use a chicken stock because we are
[13:53]: not vegetarian so it doesn't really
[13:54]: matter to us and we like the flavor of
[13:56]: chicken stock so
[13:58]: um
[14:00]: so we we liked the flavor
[14:02]: uh
[14:04]: tiny bit sweet
[14:05]: but the texture was a little
[14:08]: i would prefer a creamier texture but
[14:10]: that was probably my fault so
[14:12]: um i believe
[14:15]: she wanted me to put all of the
[14:17]: mushrooms into a
[14:19]: food processor after they were cooked
[14:22]: and
[14:23]: process them there and i
[14:27]: being lazy
[14:28]: decided to
[14:29]: use my
[14:32]: immersion blender
[14:34]: go ahead and add the cream and the broth
[14:35]: and stuff stuff and use my immersion
[14:37]: blender and that did not get a really
[14:40]: smooth product and
[14:42]: i don't know that you'd ever get a
[14:43]: totally smooth product but if i did this
[14:45]: again i would definitely try it
[14:47]: her way and see if we preferred the
[14:49]: texture there you just get a little bit
[14:51]: more bits than um
[14:55]: you know it's there it's a little chunky
[14:57]: it's not it's not a smooth product um
[15:01]: the bits are a little bigger than i
[15:02]: would prefer
[15:03]: um
[15:05]: but as is it's vegetarian it's gluten
[15:07]: free and
[15:09]: it was pretty good we we ate the
[15:11]: leftovers we uh we really enjoyed it and
[15:15]: i would make the soup again but like i
[15:17]: said probably use a different
[15:19]: stock um but it does take
[15:22]: a lot
[15:24]: a lot a lot of mushrooms so it does have
[15:27]: a really great mushroom flavor
[15:28]: from all the mushrooms
[15:30]: anyway
[15:31]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[15:32]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[15:34]: subscribe button and come back and watch
[15:36]: me make something else next week