Valentine's Day

I decided to make a somewhat nicer dinner today, being Valentine ’s Day and all. Truth be told, the meal was not even the slightest bit more difficult than my everyday-dinners but we had a soup and dessert course so the sheer amount of food was greater. This proves slightly problematic when you do not yet own your dream kitchen with a double cooking surface and 2 wall ovens. Anywho, tonight I made a mushroom soup; lamb chops au poivre with mashed and green beans tossed with garlic and pine nuts; and homemade ice cream sandwiches.

 

I have never made a mushroom soup before, so I decided to give it a shot and just make up my own recipe. Most of my soups start out in one of two ways: mirepoix (carrots, celery and onions) or sauted (or caramelized) onions eventually deglazed with some type of booze. I decided to go with the latter and work from there. This was very simple and flavorful.

 

Mushroom soup

3 tbsp. butter

1 small onion, chopped

1 lb. assorted mushrooms, chopped

2 sprigs (leaves) fresh thyme or probably about ½ tsp dried

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup dry sherry

3 cups chicken broth

1 cup beef broth

½ cup half and half or heavy cream

salt and pepper to taste

 

Melt butter in large stockpot/saucepan. Add onions and cook until tender over medium-low heat, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, thyme, and garlic. Continue cooking over medium-low until mushrooms brown (do not add salt) and most of the moisture they’ve released has evaporated, about 15-20 minutes.

 

Add sherry. Switch heat to medium-high and cook until sherry is reduced by at least half, about 3 minutes.

 

Add broths. Simmer for about 20-30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

 

Add half and half or cream and heat through over medium-low, about 5 minutes.

 

If you like a chunky soup, serve as is. If you like it smooth, puree with an immersion blender or food processor. If you are like me and like something in between, do what I did: put a couple ladlefuls of the soup into a processor and pulse process. Re-add back to the soup and let it thicken slightly.

 

For the lamb chops, I used a recipe from Bon Apetit. The only difference is that I used short loin chops instead of rib and a splash of half and half at the end. A nice change from steak au poivre, easy and delicious. I seared the chops about 2 minutes per side and then put them in a warm oven to finish cooking while I made the sauce. This made for a perfectly medium rare chop.

 

For the mashed potatoes, I just made them with butter and half and half since we had some in the fridge. A rarity since I tend to make mashed potatoes with skim milk and a little bit of butter or sometimes even *gasp* Smart Balance.

 

For the green beans, I heated some olive oil in a pan, then threw in 2 cloves of minced garlic and some chopped pine nuts. I sautéed that over low heat, while my green beans boiled (just covered fresh beans with water, brought to a boil and cooked for about 5 minutes). Then I tossed the drained green beans with the oil-garlic-pine nut mixture and some salt and pepper.  See, I can make vegetables besides asparagus!

 

 

 

For the ice cream sandwiches, I used Ina’s chocolate white chocolate chunk cookies and vanilla ice cream. I rolled them in some chopped hazelnuts. I tried to take the pic before the ice cream started to melt, but no dice there. It doesn’t look that great but it tasted pretty damn awesome. Thank you, Ina, for never letting me down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Valentine’s Day!