balthazar’s mushroom soup

I am not one who normally gives reviews on restaurants or talks about the latest food faux pas and I certainly never gab about the latest additions to my family because, well, that would be all I ever talk about and I don’t want to be a bore. Like most women who collect dishes, shoes, and hair supplies — which I am most certainly guilty of  — I also have a little habit of picking up a cookbook about once a day — well, if I were allowed it would be that often, but my bookshelves are too jam packed with other shiny backed books I can hardly justify my junkie habit — or was it my wallet?

Today, however, I am going to make a slight exception to my rule. This cookbook, Balthazar’s cookbook, is unlike any of the other glossy paged books that currently line my shelves. Its french style cooking is not an unusual concept for cookbooks nor is the restaurant flair and big mouth watering pictures, but I find it charming as if it were the center of a dreamy novel or the beginning of a new romance. Perhaps I’m being a bit of a girl here, but tell me you aren’t swept off your feet after flipping through pages filled with black and white pictures of the Balthazar Restaurant which look like they were taken straight out of a small Paris bistro with bustling bus boys, large dinner parties and tables of one reading newspapers, yet all found in the center of New York City. It is full of little terms and french sayings and definitions, cream, herbs, butter in no small quantity and bottles upon bottles of wine. It’s comforting, yet upbeat and classy; fancy but not snobby or impossibly difficult. Choosing which recipe will be the first you dip your spoon into will be difficult but I must be an advocate for their mushroom soup, it really is divine.

Balthazar Cream of Mushroom Soup
Adapted from The Balthazar Cookbook

1 ounce dried mushrooms (porcini, morels, or shitakes)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bundle thyme (about 8 or so sprigs)
1 large yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground white pepper
1 pound white button mushrooms, cleaned and thinly sliced
1 pound shitake mushrooms stemmed, cleaned and thinly sliced
3 cups chicken stock
3 cups beef broth
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Soak the dry mushrooms in 1 cup of warm water for 20 to 30 minutes, until plump.

Strain the soaking liquid through a coffee filter to remove grit and reserve, along with the reconstituted mushrooms, until needed.

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over a medium flame. When the oil is hot, add the thyme bundle and sizzle for a few minutes on both sides to infuse the oil.

Add the onion, garlic, salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes, until the onion is soft and translucent but not brown.

Turn the flame to high and add the white mushrooms and shitakes.

Cook for 10 minutes, during which the mushrooms will give off their liquid (which should evaporate quickly due to the high heat) and deflate significantly. Stir occasionally.

Add the chicken and beef broth and the dried mushrooms along with the soaking water.

Simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the herbs, then add the cream, butter and lemon juice. Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender until smooth. Return to the pot and keep at a very low simmer until ready to serve.