September 28, 2012

A Year of Soup: Recipes and existential musings

ayearofsoup:

Here in time and not, we confront a mystery of creation, a fungi. A half-life full of living, quickly blooming and then disappearing: earthy, woodsy, meaty, light, dry but watery, exotic but ubiquitous. Mushrooms Unto Death.

1.
a) Fungi are neither plant nor animal, though closer in certain genetic measures to the latter.
b) The right one can murder you like an assassin.
i – You did eat his brothers that one time.
c) Most edible mushrooms live off decomposing organic matter, although some have a symbiotic relationship with living plants and a few are parasites.
d) They are a rather miraculous part of the Big Plan, a way for the system to deal with excess wetness. A mushroom consists of over 90% water.
ii – They can also be rich in nutrients.
e) Mushrooms generally have a strong umami flavor that touches and skews other ingredients strongly, but not one-dimensionally, even throughout a broad dish - like soup.

Read More

Winter is coming and we need to eat warm. Over on A Year of Soup, strange and wonderful, worth following, you get one soup recipe a week. Above is the overture to creamy mushroom and leek. These are good to read and good to try to make. Why soup? Here’s why.