 |
Prep Time: 0 Minutes Cook Time: 70 Minutes |
Ready In: 70 Minutes Servings: 6 |
|
While we love beer and cheese soup as well as broccoli cheese soup, this one is for special occasions. Spinach, brie, sherry stock and a base of veggies elevate this soup to company quality food. I'd recommend small servings only for appetizers or your guest won't have room for the rest of the dinner. Ingredients:
4 tbsp. of unsalted butter |
1/4 cup julienned carrots |
1/4 cup julienned celery |
1/2 cup fresh sliced mushrooms |
1/3 cup of all purpose flour |
1/4 cup of dry sherry |
6 cups chicken stock |
12 ounces brie cheese - rind removed, room temperature |
2 cups of baby spinach leaves, stemmed, washed and spun dry |
1/3 cup heavy cream |
1/2 tsp of salt |
1/4 tsp of white pepper |
1/8 tsp of fresh grated nutmeg |
minced chives or scallions for garnish (chives are best) |
Directions:
1. Melt butter in large stock pot, add the finely chopped carrot, celery and thinly sliced mushrooms. Cook over low heat until the veggies are wilted and softened. Stir in the flour and gently cook out the raw taste of the flour, do not brown or burn. Add the sherry and increase the heat to medium.
2. Add the stock and cook until the mixture begins to reduce by a third and is thickening nicely (coating a spoon). Add the brie and the spinach leaves and cook another 15 minutes, stirring quite often.
3. Add cream and seasonings, simmer five minutes more and then taste and adjust salt and seasonings to taste.
4. Serve sprinkled with chives.
5. What I love about cooking is that after a hard day, there is something comforting about the fact that if you melt butter and add flour and then hot stock, it will get thick! It's a sure thing! It's a sure thing in a world where nothing is sure; it has a mathematical certainty in a world where those of us who long for some kind of certainty are forced to settle for crossword puzzles.”
6. Nora Ephron, American journalist (1941-)
|
|