All content copyright Katrina Hall 2008 through 2025

Thursday, October 21, 2010

thyme and mushroom soup with pepper biscuits



What a gloomy, rainy morning! While yesterday was sunny and cold, it was a perfect day for long walks and the last glimpses of the fiery maple trees. Today is a perfect day for my favorite mushroom soup, mellow with thyme and perky with a pinch of cayenne. I don't use any fillers in this soup - just mushrooms, chicken or vegetable stock, and lots of thyme.
Two days ago I had seen a recipe on Chezus for savory scones with parmesan and black pepper and I thought it would go well with this soup. I halved the recipe, and added a little bit more buttermilk so they were more like biscuits . Delicious! And halving the recipe gave me just enough biscuits for serving with the soup, with no leftovers.
Makes 2 or 3 servings of soup:
a 10 oz. package of mushrooms, sliced ( about 2 1/2 cups)
2 or 3 T. unsalted butter
1 T. olive oil
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 t. dried thyme
1 T. minced parsley
pinch of cayenne pepper, or 1/4 t. hot pepper flakes
kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste
In a skillet or large saucepan, heat the butter and olive oil, then add the mushrooms. You may need to saute the mushrooms in two batches. Saute until the mushrooms are brown and nutty.
Add the stock, thyme, cayenne or hot pepper flakes, and parsley to the mushrooms.
Simmer for five minutes, then take off heat.
Using a blender or immersion stick blender, puree the soup.
Taste carefully and add salt and pepper as desired.
Parmesan and Black Pepper biscuits
Makes 5 biscuits
Preheat oven to 375F
Fit a piece of parchment or foil to a baking sheet.
1 cup King Arthur all purpose flour
1 T. baking powder
1/4 t. kosher salt
3 T. cold unsalted butter, cut in pieces
5 T. buttermilk
1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
several turns of freshly cracked pepper
(about 1/2 t.)
Add the flour, salt, and baking powder to a food processor and pulse .
Add the butter and pulse until incorporated into the flour.
Add the cheese and pepper, then the buttermilk.
Pulse until the mixture comes together in a ball.
Pat down dough into a small square, then trim the edges - I use the trimmings to make another hand formed biscuit.
Cut into small biscuits using a sharp knife. Mine were about 2 1/2 inches square.
Grind pepper on top of biscuits and place on baking sheet.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until tops are golden and biscuits are light when picked up.
Enjoy the day!

3 comments:

Lindsey Frances said...

It just began raining in Boston. I wish I had this combination right now. Those biscuits look divine. I might have to replicate the flavors.

katrina said...

Glad you agree this is a wonderful way to chase away the chill, Lindsey! Thyme is such a wonderful warming herb and I use it more and more, as winter comes closer and closer. I think those biscuits will lend themselves to all kinds of combinations, but today the pepper just seemed to go well with the thyme and mushrooms. Thanks for taking a look!

Chef Fresco said...

Those biscuits look so yummy! And of course the soup does too!!