Creamed Mushroom Soup with Doorstep Toast

Oh my stars was this good!

Slice a whole slew of mushrooms quite thin (you can use all different kinds but portobello shrooms were on sale this week so that's what I used).

Note to self: Use the slicing blade on the food processor next time.

That was so much chopping!!

Throw all the mushrooms and a couple chopped garlic cloves in a pan with a knob of butter and a glug of olive oil and stir fry on high for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, dice up half a large red onion (the recipe called for a whole red onion but the ones at the store were enormous!!), and a couple stalks of celery.

Set 1/3 of the mushrooms aside in a smaller pan to be reheated later.

Add the diced veg to the pan with a couple of bay leaves.  Heat over medium until the onions start to become tender.

And here's the brandy I bought.  It never occurred to me to buy one of the little tiny bottles.... duh!  I took a shot of this and surprisingly liked the flavor a lot... very spicy!  It did very weird things to my tongue however.  It almost tickled!  Man did adding a shot (or two, haha) to the pan make those mushrooms smell heavenly!

Add some chicken stock and some white rice to the pan and simmer for 20 minutes.

While that's bubbling away, mix together a large dollop of sour cream, the zest of half a lemon and give the lemon a good squeeze into the bowl.  Season, stir and set aside. I've come to the conclusion that I need a microplane. I used my box grater for zesting the lemon... never again.

After 20 minutes, take the bay leaves out and put the mixture in a food processor (or in my case I used my large Ninja... love that thing!) to liquidize.  Flip on the pan with the reserved mushrooms in it.  Cut a couple slices of crusty bread, drizzle with olive oil and pop in the toaster.  Cut a clove of garlic in half and rub it on the hot toast (still not sure why this is considered "doorstep toast"... any ideas?).  Put a small dollop of the lemon sour cream in the bowl and drizzle with olive oil.  

Bring on the soup!!

When I asked Matt if he liked it all he said was, "shhhh" as he put more in his mouth! Haha, sometimes I think that man loves mushrooms more than me.