Cream of Mushroom with Chicken

    Frank and Betty Smith owned a restaurant in Hemet, California named Falatico’s.  Frank ran the restaurant, and Betty ran the business.  Falatico’s was just a great place.  The food was fantastic, but the place itself, with all the employees just yelled “Come on in, we’re the friendliest place you’ll ever dine. Plus the food is GREAT!"

Now, I knew Frank from the Elks Lodge.  He would never give me his recipes although he would tell me pretty much exactly  but after a few beers, I would never remember.  One thing Frank used to say was “Ron, you’d be surprised how simple most recipes are.”

Falatico’s specialty was Italian as you may have guessed from the name, but they had great barbeque ribs and steaks.  Another thing that “was to die for” was their homemade soups.  Especially Thursday night when they would have mushroom.

Sorry to say, Frank and Betty are both gone and so is Falatico’s.  I often think about them and have cravings for one of their meals.  Start with a small salad with Italian, then the mushroom soup, the main course of ribs with a side of spaghetti, then a little spumoni  for dessert.

Ok, so the other night while eating some really great cream of potato soup at the Soboba country club, I started thinking about Falatico’s and their mushroom soup.  So, the next morning I started checking recipes and guess what, you’ll be surprised about how simple it is.

Basic is best and here’s the basic.

 

Cream of Mushroom Soup

½ lb fresh mushrooms (chopped)

1 tbspn chopped chives (green onions, chopped)

3 tbspns butter

¼ tsp salt

¼ tspn blk pepper

4 cups chicken broth

4 tbspns flour

¾ cup cream

Melt the butter and sautee the mushroom s and chives.  Add the salt and pepper and chicken broth.  Bring to boil.  While waiting for it to boil, shake the flour with the cream and add to the boiling broth.  Stir until it thickens then drop to a simmer.  Serve

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      Now, how easy is that?

So, here’s what happened to me.  I didn’t have any chicken broth and I could bitch about the price of gas and how the nearest store is  five miles away, but the fact is I was too lazy to go to the store.  But, I did have some frozen chicken breasts.  So, I crockpot’d it on high for 4 hrs in 4 cups water and made my own.  And, since now I had the chicken breasts, I used a half cup chopped in the soup, and that’s why the title says Cream of Mushroom with Chicken.

Now, I know that most people don’t have a half pound of fresh cremini mushrooms in their fridge like I did, so canned is ok, 2 or 3 small cans.  And if you do like fresh, feel free to use portabell’s, shiitake’s or whatever suits your fancy. 

What I did was slice half and chop the other half cause I wanted some slices in the soup.  Whichever mushrooms you use, when you sautee them with the chives, don’t forget the salt.  That’s what brings out the flavor.  Lot’s of people these days will be tempted to skip it, you know the so called healthy.

I mentioned how simple this is.  If you read some of the recipes from famous chef’s like Julia Child, you’ll see where they whipped the  heavy cream with an egg yolk then mixed in some arrowroot (which I cannot find in my local grocery stores) and this is what gives the creamy thickness.  I say if you got time, go for it.  It’ll probably be better, but if you talk to the kitchen help, at the restaurant, it’s thrown together in a pot.   It's basically a white sauce and broth with mushrooms and onion.  Puck uses corn starch, I used flour.  Hey, experiment.  Add some bay leaves, thyme, use beef instead of chicken, celery, or whatever.  It’s gonna be one of two recipes.  One you use again or one you don't.  I’m usin’ mine again.

Enjoy!