Soup, Salad and Snow

Wednesday we went next door for dinner. We had a lovely evening and enjoyed our time with our neighbor, her children and their fluffy white dog. Max gave us the once over upon returning home and was not happy. Thursday I woke up to snow falling. Not a bad snow, just enough to be annoying to drive in but give the illusion of a white Christmas. For dinner I made soup and salad. The soup, Carrot and Leek Soup with Herbed Croutons came from the December Fine Cooking magazine, serves 6
Ingredients:

6T unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 small leeks sliced (light-green and white parts only)
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
Salt and pepper
3C chicken broth
2# carrots, sliced ¼ “thick (how idiotic, your Cuisinart has a slicing blade, use it)
2 dried bay leaves
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2C crusty bread cut into ½” cubes
1 ½ T chopped fresh chervil (I have never found fresh even in Wegmans)
1C plain yoghurt
Directions:
1. I did not make the croutons as I had some that were very good from Wegmans. If you do make them heat the oven to 350. Melt 3T of butter in a sauce pan and add the bread cubes and chopped chervil. Toss to coat evenly. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet, season with salt and bake until golden, 8-10 minutes.
2. For the soup, melt 3T of butter in a 5 qt. saucepan. Add the onion, leeks, garlic, ½ t salt and ¼ t pepper, cook until softened and light golden brown, about 10 minutes
3. Add broth, carrots, bay leaves, thyme sprigs and ½ C water. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the carrots are tender about 15 minutes.
4. When the vegetables are tender, discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs. I used my immersion blender to puree the soup. (With the leftover soup, I am going to use my regular blender as I thought it was too chunky. I should have used a deeper pot as I was decorating the kitchen with soup while using the immersion blender.)
5. Stir in the yogurt. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve with croutons.
The soup was pretty good, not outstanding, but according to Jim, carrots are never good.

Mushroom and Soft-Cooked Egg Salad with Hollandaise, Serves 4, 30 minutes, Sunset magazine, October
Ingredients:
4 large eggs
3T melted butter, divided
1T EVOO
8 oz. cremini mushrooms, stems removed and quartered
4 oz each chanterelle and oyster mushrooms, cut into 1” pieces
½ t salt
½ C crème fraiche
1 ½ t Dijon mustard
1 t. each lemon juice and zest
6 cups of watercress
Pepper
Directions:
1. Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Using a slotted spoon, gently submerge eggs into water. Simmer 5 minutes, then carefully immerse in cool water.
2. Heat 1T of butter with the oil in a 12” frying pan over medium -high heist. Add mushrooms and sauté until browned about 8 minutes, then season with salt.
3. Whisk together crème fraiche, mustard, lemon juice and lemon zest in a small bowl. Gradually whisk in remaining 2T butter to make hollandaise sauce. (This hollandaise not only worked, I could have licked the bowl.)
4. Divide watercress among plates. Top with warm mushrooms, then drizzle with hollandaise. Crack an end of each egg and peel a quarter of shell. Using a spoon carefully loosen eggs from their shell. Using a spoon, carefully loosen eggs from their shells and scoop out onto salads. Add a few turns of pepper on top.
This salad was perfect with the soup. The watercress was peppery against the mushrooms and egg. Knowing Jim I had divided this in thirds and have none left. I rate this one a must try. If you can’t find watercress in your market I would recommend arugula as an alternate.