Cream of Mushroom Soup

Wash and chop-slice the mushrooms into a big soup pot. Sautè them with the following ingredients:

20oz. crimini - baby portabella - mushrooms

2T finely chopped onion

1 minced garlic clove

4T (1/2 stick) butter

fresh ground pepper

Stir occasionally over low-medium heat until the liquid in the mushrooms evaporates and the mushrooms start to brown a little. Add the rest of a large onion, sliced. Cover and simmer a half hour or so until everything is nicely caramelized. Take 2/3 of the mushrooms and onions out of the pot. These will be added at the end and not blended with the other vegetables.

Make a roux with 2 heaping tablespoons of unbleached, all purpose flour and 1/3c± cold water and add that to the mushroom pot.

In another pot, combine the remaining chopped vegetables shown, part of a poblano pepper, 3 bay leaves, 3c water, and 1 package of beefy onion soup mix. Simmer, covered 30-40 minutes until the carrots are soft.

Remove the bay leaves, add the simmered vegetables to the mushrooms to be blended. Blend as smooth as you'd like with an immersion blender.

Stir in 1c half and half, and the chunky mushrooms. Bring this to a low bubble.

Serve with a drizzle of truffle-infused EVOO and some freshly chopped herbs. . .Lin