The Basic Cream Soup (by h.chiurciu)

Today i had a great dinner, so i write about good things! =)

I don't know about you there, reading this, but here in Brazil (and specially at São Paulo) it is friggin' COLD! On a night like this, nothing warms your soul & body more and more nicely than a good bowl of soup. So, tonight i'll show you the basics for making a great CREAM SOUP.

I cannot say this is my specialty (Tiago himself has seen at least one of my failures on this matter!), but it surely is one of my favorites ways of cooking and I've been training on it for a few months now. It all started when i saw an Onion Cream Soup recipe at my girlfriend's place and decided to try it out. I'll teach you how it goes! =D

You'll need 4 big onions (maybe 5 or 6 of smaller ones), a cup of flour, 2 to 3 spoonfulls of butter and some boiling water ready to be used- as you see, all very simple ingredients!

First thing is to slice your onions very thinly! If your knife abillities are not that great, you can use a slicing device - but beware not to destroy your onions!

On a big cooking pot, melt down your butter on slow flame. Add the sliced onions, add some heat and gently fry them. Pay attention not to let your onions get too dry, or else they may burn; add more butter if necessary. As onions are somewhat acid vegetables, a nice trick is to add a pinch of sugar to them - but not too much, this is not a dessert!

Once they are well-fried, it's time to add the flour and make the cream.

You can do this in two different ways:

HARDCORE WAY: Throw your flour on the steaming onions while stiring it quickly! Mix it all up untill you get a very dry and hot mixture; then, add boiling water and mix it well.

PROS: you see the magic of the flour-turning-into-cream right in front of your eyes! it makes you feel a true alchemist and can impress deeply your dinning-company. ;)

CONS: it's possible you'll get flour-clogs in your cream; you may need to work your way with a spoon to dissolve them, but this can be minimized using sifted flour.

PRECACIOUS WAY: Gently mix your flour on a glass of water, making sure there are no clogs and it is all well dissolved. Add it to your pan out of the fire.

PROS: you'll get a more homogeneous mixture, greatly avoiding clogs and needing less abillity; you mayimpress your dining-company with how precacious and thoutghfull you are! ;)

CONS: well, it's a bit less exciting. =P

Now what you'll want is a boiling somewhat-waterish cream: add a little more water for that and let it boil for a good while (maybe 1h or so), cooking the flour and melting the onions into the cream. Keep adding water to keep it cooking, just stopping when you feel that it's all done and the thickness is the same as desired. You should taste it and add salt just then (not to repeat my last post ridiculous mistake).

It is done!!! =D
If you wish, before serving, add some fresh mint leaves and a mixed egg to it - they will give your soup a very special taste!

If you manage to make it right, congratulations!! You made your very first cream soup, and also learned all that you'll need to keep making cream soups! - of course, you'll need to reduce the amount of onions depending on the kind of soup you are aiming for.

Tonight, I made myself a very tasty Spinach Cream Soup using this exact principles.

I used just one onion and added a bit of garlic to it; shamefully, i also added a pinch of ready-made vegetables-sauce, but a fairly good one. After the cream was done, I added a handfull of chopped spinach leaves and boiled it for a few minutes. I also added the cracked egg at the end, and a bit of nutmeg during the process.

And it tasted quite great!!

All i wish is that i had sharen it with a dear one... but then i write here and share it with you! =)

Hope you guys try it out and make lots of delicious hot cream soups for your winter!!