Mushroom soup

As my family's soup recipes are mostly non-veg based and somewhat more in south Indian fashion, I never had the confidence to prepare some fancy soup without proper recipe. The funny thing is I can bake without any hesitation but get confused when my hubby asks me for a restaurant style soup:) But my love for hearty warm soups always made me ask for recipes whenever I taste great soups. In course of time I learned a few. Last year I bought some books from the nearby library when they hosted a brown bag clearance sale. This soup book called 'Soups' written by Ms.Robin Howe, is one among them. It has many descriptions on choosing the herbs,stock making, ingredients and tips. I got this mushroom soup recipe from this book and made it in a lean version.

Ingedients: (2 cups)

Mushroom - 10 (fresh or canned)
(6.5 oz can / 200 gm with water)
onion - 1/4 cup
butter - 1 tbsp
salt - to taste
black pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
All purpose flour - 1 tbsp
milk - 1 cup

Method:

Heat a thick bottom vessel. Add the butter and onion.
Saute the finely chopped onion in butter.
After it gets soft, slide in the finely chopped mushroom.
Stir for a few seconds.
Then put the AP flour and fry for a minute.
Add 1 cup water and cook covered with salt.
After it reduces to half cup, pour a cup of milk and cook till it gets slightly thick.
Serve with a dash of black pepper powder.

Serving suggestions:

Serve hot with little fresh cream (optional).
If the soup seems thin, microwave a tbsp of Ap flour, mix it with 2 tbsp water and add to the soup. Then reheat again.

Original version:

mushroom - 1 lb
onion - 2
butter - 3 oz
chicken stock - 2 pints
milk - 1 1/4 cup
flour - 2 oz
cream - 1/4 pint
egg yolk - 2
salt, pepper - to taste

Method:

Prepare by the above method, but  puree 70% of mushroom after sauteing. Replace water by chicken stock.
For garnishing, saute remaining chopped mushrooms in butter and add.
Sprinkle a dash of paprika powder before serving.