Cream of Mushroom Soup

Alright we are back in the kitchen! I daren't type out an honored recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, besides you should all have a copy yourself! I will go through my experience and share some photos. Unfortunately it wasn't specified which mushrooms to use and I don't have a lot of mushroom experience so I stuck with basic white button mushrooms. I have to say I was dying to share this with Hef's dad, since he is a great love of Campbell's version.

 Of course we start off with a lot of chopped mushrooms, stems and caps separated!

 Here is the first soup base, onions and mushroom stems with chicken stock, and already it smells delicious! Just thinking about it made me stop and go to heat up a bowl.

My kitchen helpers, Little B actually alerted me to stop taking pictures and check the butter because it is foaming and its time to add the caps.

 Now when I moved in with Hef's dad oh those 3 years ago, I never thought I could separate an egg! It's so easy now, but it still amazes me!

 Here is where I got nervous, so much mushroom and very little butter in the pan but it cooked down and of course Julia & Simone & Louisette are right as always.

 I've said it before and I'll say it again, French Cooking uses every pot in your kitchen. At this point the soup stock and the mushrooms had to be combined with the heavy cream and afore mentioned egg yolks. Instructions call for a mixing bowl but I don't have one large enough and I knew I'd have to reheat this when Hef's dad got home so out came the Le Creuset and whisking/combining began.

 And in the end we have a delightful bowl of soup! I don't like black pepper but when Hef's dad makes Campbell's he usually puts it right in the pot so I couldn't have a bowl of Cream of Mushroom without a tiny bit of it. For my vegetarian friends I'm sure you could vegetable stock but I don't know what you would do about the egg yolks and cream. Isn't that ok for vegetarians? Is it just vegans that won't use any animal products?

Perfect for this kinda sorta winter we are having!