Ah...
Well, today I made, for the very first time, a soup not based on my mom's tried and true recipes and neither from the FineCooking recipe maker, which I have lately been addicted to. Nope. Today I finally managed to make my own soup from scratch...ish. I took what I learned from the various soups I have made and applied it...way to be a good student, right? Sure. I should have learned first about not using too much home-grown garlic...now there's a mistakes that's hard to come back from.
Anyways, here goes!
P.S. I won't be very awesome at giving exact measurements and such unless I'm dictated straight from a real deal recipe so bear with me, please!
Kale-Mushroom Soup:
Ingredients:
Leek
Garlic
Kosher Salt
Kale (just the leafy bits)
Mushrooms (I used your plain jane white mushrooms but I'm sure this could be pretty awesome with some nice shiitake or portobellos)
Apple Cider (Not the hard stuff, take it easy now...)
Broth (5 cups for what I have in mind, and I like it salty so I use the knorr directions about water to stock but you could do 2 1/2 cups with stock and 2 1/2 just water if your less addicted to sodium...)
Cumin
Heavy Cream or Buttermilk
Salt
Pepper
Cider Vinegar
To serve about 8 people as an appetizer-type soup...
Throw some butter in a decent sized soup pan (maybe the size of an average dutch oven?), melt it up. Toss in 2 chopped stalks of leek and 2 cloves of chopped garlic (I use home grown garlic which is VERY potent and also huge...so use your own risk) and stir. Let them cook, stirring occasionally, for a bit until soft, throwing in about a Tsp of kosher salt before they're finished.
Add your 5 cups of liquid with several leaves of fresh kale (chopped with the tough stemmy parts removed) and a large handful (prechopped) mushrooms, all chopped into roughly the same sized pieces, to the aromatics (the leek and the garlic). Throw in about 1/3 to 1/2 Cup of apple cider along with a pinch of cumin (again, it's up to you. I usually give a couple of shakes but try to avoid making soup that tastes like spiced gouda...).
Let this all cook, stirring once in awhile, on med-low for about 15-20 minutes, or at least until all the veg is soft and nice and delicious smelling.
Take the pan off the heat. Be sure to turn your burner off...don't want any accidents, now. Move the pan to your chosen blending location and be sure to set the pan right next to the blender for minimum spillage. Scoop the soup into the blender, not filling it more than 1/3 full. Put the lid on and cover with a dish towel. Run on high (start low to avoid explosions and turn up) for about...30 secs to a minute, until it all looks nice and smooth and chunk-less. Transfer this to a clean bowl. Repeat with the rest of the soup until it's all been blended. Wash out your pan and blend the whole thing all over again, this time pouring it all back into the soup pan.
You CAN use an emulsifier for this (a hand blender-y thing) but I find it doesn't get rid of the chunks quite as well.
Put the soup back on the stove and turn your burner on low. Add about 1/2 cup of heavy cream or buttermilk, a tsp of cider vinegar (NOT TOO MUCH or the cream will curdle) and a touch of salt and pepper. At this point it's all about taste. Add more cream if you think the soup needs to be a bit thinner or if you want it creamier. You can also add plain yogurt. Add salt and pepper as needed until everything is just so!
Garnish with a drizzle of cream and some nice crispy bacon.
