Cuisine: Creamy Mushroom Soup

I racked my brain for what kind of cuisine to make for The S. Kitchen presents...Sing for Your Supper as we were supposed to make food inspired by music. So I thought I should probably start with picking the music and then the food. After a couple of weeks spinning different cds and shuffling of my ipod, I settled on German music, and not the German music of yesteryear. No, I wanted the pop/rock German music of Kraftwerk and Nena Hagen and Marlene Deitrich.

Then, I wandered around German food blogs. Having recently traveled to Berlin to visit my dear friend Dan, I knew that there would be an additional challenge to this cuisine: how to stay true to the German palate, which is incredibly dull, while bringing in a little kick, which I have to have in all my food. I ended up making a mushroom gravy called Scwammerl Soße. I made it exactly as the recipe was written. It turned out good, but I wanted it to be better.

Then, I crafted this recipe. Needless to say, there wasn't a single drop left.

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You Will Need:
4 TBSP butter
2 onions, finely diced
2 lbs fresh mushrooms
1/2 tsp bittersweet paprika
1/4 tsp hot paprika
1/4 tsp lemon zest
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fine ground pepper
3 cups water
2 cups cream
3/4 cup flour
vegetable base to taste

What To Do:
Wash and quarter the mushrooms. Put the quartered mushrooms into a food processor and pulse until the are finely diced. Melt the butter in a dutch oven. Add the mushrooms and onions and fry for 10-15 minutes or until they are releasing their juices and starting to brown.

Combine the cream and the water. Add three cups of this mixture to the mushrooms and onions. Add the paprikas, lemon zest, salt, and fine ground pepper. Cover and cook for about 30 minutes.

Whisk the flour into the remaining cream/water mixture until it is smooth. Cook for about 15 more minutes or until it thickens into the consistency you want. Taste and add vegetable base if needed.