Mushroom Soup

I've been in a cooking mood. Peanut butter cookies, banana nut bread, bean soup and corn muffins, and today mushroom soup. Yesterday when I was in the mercado they had a box of really fresh white mushrooms and the idea just popped in my head that I'd make mushroom soup. I've never made it before and I didn't have a recipe but I figured that a pound or so of mushrooms would make a nice lunch.

This morning I went to the Fine Cooking Magazine website and looked at recipes but I didn't have all of the ingredients for any mushroom soup that they had so what the heck. Soup is soup. I thought I could figure out something. Here is my recipe, mas or menos.

3 tablespoon of butter
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 large leek quartered lengthwise and sliced thin (about 2 cups)
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1.25 pounds of mushrooms, wiped clean, and sliced thin (about 6 cups of sliced mushrooms) I'd try a variety of mushrooms if I had them.
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons of fresh thyme leaves
5 cups of boxed chicken broth or homemade
4 tablespoons of crema or 1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup white wine (might be better with dry sherry if you have it on hand)
1-1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

Melt butter and olive oil in stockpot over medium-high heat. Add leek and cook about 2-4 minutes until it is soft and starting to brown a bit. Stir in garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Add mushrooms and thyme and 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Cook about 3-4 minutes until the mushrooms are limp.

Add the broth and bring to a boil over high heat then reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. Cook about 5 to 10 minutes until the mushrooms are tender. Let cool slightly then put about 1/2 to 2/3 of the soup in a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer back to the stock pot. Add crema or whipping cream, wine or sherry and soy sauce. Taste and add more salt or pepper if needed. At this point I added a sprinkle of cayenne pepper just because we like a kick of heat in soup. Bring to low simmer for a minute or two to let the flavors blend. Put in bowls and sprinkle with just a few thyme leaves or maybe some chopped chives.