Artichoke-Mushroom Soup: Comfort, Even In The Summer Heat

After several days of record-breaking heat, it is finally rainy and cool down here in DC, and the perfect weather for soup. I've had some sliced baby bella mushrooms sitting in my fridge begging me not to let them go bad. The artichoke hearts I picked up from Trader Joe's the weekend before seemed to be the best pairing, and with a dollop of heavy cream right before I finished cooking, I had a great comfort meal, to get me through the dreary weather that pops up every so often during the summer. I imagine it could even been good at room temperature.

This meal took about 40 minutes of cook time, including prep work, so it's quick and comforting, and the smell that permeates throughout the house is wonderful and homey.

Artichoke-Mushrooms Soup

Ingredients:
1 T unsalted butter
1 small white onion, brunoise (finely diced)
1 shallot, diced
1 T fruity olive oil (Trader Joe's President Olive Oil/California Estate Bottled or Whole Foods 365 are great value olive oils and not watered down with peanut or canola oils)
1 T rice vinegar
2-3 C chicken stock (adjust to whether you want a thinner or a thicker soup; use your own chicken stock (2 lb chicken bones + vegetables + water to cover bones) for a more robust and homestyle flavor)
6 oz artichoke hearts (if frozen, boil in water), coarsely chopped (~1 1/4 cup)
6 oz mushroom, coarsely chopped (~1 cup)
1 t cayenne pepper
1 t ground nutmeg
1 t thyme
1/4 C heavy cream
salt and black pepper to taste

Method:
1. Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan over medium, then add the onion and shallot. Let it sweat in the buter for 5-10 minutes, add the olive oil and raise the heat to medium-high. When the onion and shallot begin to stick to the bottom of the pan, scrape off with a spatula, deglaze with the rice vinegar, then add the chicken stock.

2. Lower the temperature to medium, then add the artichoke hearts and mushroom. Bring to a boil then let it simmer for 25 minutes.

3. Add the cayenne pepper, nutmeg and thyme and let the soup rest for a minute. Then add it to a blender or use an immersion blender and puree it to your desired thickness.

4. Ad the heavy cream and blend for another 30 seconds. Pour into a bowl and enjoy it however you like.

I topped mine with chopped walnuts, adding texture and more nutty flavor, and parmesan cheese, which melted beautifully in the middle of the bowl. Remember, you want your food to look as good as it tastes, because presentation is almost as important to the taste of the food as the actual flavor.

Enjoy!

P.S. The soup also has a natural parter in a mesclun green salad with a bit of tomato (sweetness and
acidity) and a rice vinegar vinaigrette (3:1 olive oil:rice vinegar + 1 t dijon mustard + salt and pepper).

The Dawn of the Artichoke, among other great food

I've never eaten artichoke before. It's hard not to be turned off by a vegetable that apparently wants to choke Arty. I mean, what's to say it doesn't want to choke Cortne??? But after seeing them for $0.79 each at the fruit stand in my hometown, I decided to pick up a couple and begin experimenting.

I don't have a vegetable steamer, so, after cutting off part of the stem and trimming the top 1/2" of the artichoke, I dropped it into a pot of heavily salted and lemon juiced water, brought it to a boil, then let it simmer for 30-40 minutes, hoping that the leaves would come out as tender as other people say they should.

In the mean time, I roasted a chicken with some mushrooms, onions, balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce and olive oil (peace of cake, only took 5 minutes of prep work and 35 minutes in the oven), braised some endives (another vegetable that I had before but never enjoyed due to the bitter taste, nothing a little, or a lot, of butter couldn't solve), and made a garlic aioli sauce.

When the artichokes were done bathing in the salty, lemony-water I plopped them onto a plate and placed them on the table with the other food. Mike looked sheepishly across the table at me as I picked off a leaf, dipped it in the aioli, flipped it over and slid the white, meaty part of the leaf across my teeth. "Wow," I thought to myself, "this is pretty good." And I tore off another leaf, just to make sure that it wasn't a fluke. It wasn't. I enjoyed it so much that, after prodding Mike about just tasting one leaf, I got him to try one, without the aioli (I got him to try the endive too, though it wasn't as big of a feat in my opinion). "It doesn't taste like anything," he said. I agree and don't agree with that. It tasted fresh, if fresh is allowed to be a taste. And so I lost my artichoke virginity that night, and it was delicious.

On another food note, for lunch yesterday I made a salad of spring greens and topped it with a fried egg. It was a great, healthful meal that can transcend the meal boundary (I see this as a breakfast, lunch or dinner). I also made one of the best vinaigrettes I've ever tasted. I've gotten really into food ratios, as can be seen in Michael Ruhlman's book, Ratio (there is also an app that I talked about in my last post). Apparently, the ratio for a vinaigrette is 3 parts oil : 1 part vinegar, as well as an emulsifier to keep the mixture combined and any other seasonings, to taste. My vinaigrette was 1 part olive oil : 2 parts vegetable oil : 1 part balsamic vinegar plus a teaspoon of whole grain Dijon mustard as an emulsifier and 1 drop of sesame oil for a deep, smoky flavor. It was soooo good I wanted to lick the plate. At any rate, this will lead the way for a post on vinaigrettes, once I cash my check and go buy some different oils and vinegars.

Enjoy.