Avgolemono Soup with Mushrooms

Ok, I give up. Although I have probably eight liters of Costco chicken stock in my pantry (in 500ml boxes), I'm not making any more soup with commercial stock or broth, after the wonderful experience I had last night. This is one of the top soups I've ever had at home or in a restaurant.*

I've got smoked turkey stock in the freezer, which should be outstanding for a bean soup, and a little shrimp stock for tom yum... all that chicken stock will probably be used only to braise things to get better stock. I'm just about out of veal stock... but that's more for sauces than soups.

Sunday night I braised two small rabbits, to get the meat for this dish to be eaten later. I had about a quart of stock left from that (which it said not to use for the pipian, it's too strong-flavored).

So for dinner last night, I decided it was soup for dinner. The quart had about 1cm of fat on the top (a little went to the dog, a little went to sweat the veg), and a cup or so of veg, herb and assorted detritus on the bottom, but between was a dark brown stock, very jiggly with gelatin. I had to heat it up just to pour it. With that much gelatin, I added a cup of water to bring it back up to about a quart.

The soup recipe is based in part on Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Soup, but I wanted a little more stuff in my soup and didn't have any leftover meat, hence the veg. Mushrooms in avgolemono. who'd have thought? But awesome.

4C dark homemade stock
2-3Tbs fat from the stock (could probably use olive oil or butter)
1/4C carrot, diced small
1/4C onion, diced small
1/4C celery, diced small
1/4C finely chopped parsley
4Tbs medium-grain rice
Six white mushrooms, sliced
2 eggs
2 Tbs lemon juice (1/2 lemon in my case)
Salt (at least 1/2tsp, probably more) and black pepper to taste
pinch of dried dill (if I had fresh, I'd probably skip the parsley)

In a medium pot, heat the fat on medium.
Add the carrot, onion, and celery, and cook until transparent but not browned, about 3 minutes
Add the mushrooms and cook until they've darkened a bit (not browned)
Add the stock, bring to a simmer, and add the rice
Simmer for about 15 minutes until the rice is about tender.
While that's happening, separate the yolks and whites of the eggs. Beat the whites until stiff (I used a stick blender, it took almost no time), then add the yolks, salt and lemon juice and beat until well mixed.
When the rice is ready, whisk the egg mixture into the soup and allow to simmer for a minute or so. Add the parsley and dill.

Serve with good bread and butter.



* candidates for best soup include Aroy's Beef Ball Tom Yum, the late Zofia's Mushroom, 1980's Pine Yard Hot and Sour, and my late Nan's beef and bean soup

This sounds delicious, Joel! I must try it, especially since you were spot-on about pork stock for my Hot and Sour Soup. I'm curious, though -- what did your soup taste like with the dark stock and mushrooms? Earthy? Heavy? Light? I'm trying to get a mental profile of how these two seemingly disparate approaches to classic soups come together.

Thanks!

Sharon

There was a huge umami flavor, but the stock wasn't that heavy, partly because the initial liquid was mostly white wine, I think, and rabbit isn't strongly flavored. There was a lot of herb from the braise and the final soup, and the egg was rich, but the lemon brightens things up.

JoelF wrote:There was a huge umami flavor, but the stock wasn't that heavy, partly because the initial liquid was mostly white wine, I think, and rabbit isn't strongly flavored. There was a lot of herb from the braise and the final soup, and the egg was rich, but the lemon brightens things up.

Can't wait to give this a try! Thanks!