Exam Week Staples: Mushroom Chicken Soup

It may not look like much, but this soup has gotten me through some long, dark, unbelievably boring days, when my culinary repertoire is limited by time and attention span, with the possible exception of my caffeine source. I find myself making it nearly every exam for several reasons: 1. I can make a huge batch at once, 2. It's reasonably healthy and hearty (when compared to some of my other test week staples, namely coffee and string cheese), and 3. I almost always have the ingredients I need stashed away. Here's what you'll need:

1. a container of mushrooms, sliced
2. 1 medium onion, chopped
3. a few cloves of garlic, chopped*
4. 1 1/2 cups chicken stock - I just reconstitute mine from the bouillion cubes so I don't have to worry about keeping cans of stock... uh... in stock. Yup. Obvious pun resisted! Congratulate me!
5. 1/2 cup cooking sherry
6. a TB or so of olive oil
7. 1 cup chopped up, cooked chicken -either leftovers, or I buy bags of pre-cooked chicken that you can keep in the freezer. They're always really tender.
8. 1 cup broken up cauliflower, steamed - again, frozen is the way to go. Just pop it in the microwave and you don't have to worry about cooking it.
9. a couple shakes of dried basil*
10. 1 bay leaf*
11. 1/4 cup cream*
12. salt and pepper, naturally

*I've always had a habit of skipping ingredients in recipes when I was either too cheap or too lazy to purchase them. Sometimes this works out fine, and sometimes it ruins the whole thing, so from now on, I'll always * ingredients that are not absolutely necessary.

Now that all this is in list format, and I'm not just haphazardly tossing stuff in a pot, this seems like a lot of stuff, but it's all stuff that I always seem to have in my kitchen.

If you're going the bouillion route, go ahead and reconstitute a cube according to the instructions so you'll have it ready. Next, fry up the onions, garlic, and mushrooms in a little olive oil on medium-high heat until everything's tender. Put these cooked veggies into a blender along with the chicken stock (the cubes usually make more liquid than you actually need) and sherry. You may have to do this in batches. Go ahead and play with the amounts of liquid you add, depending on how thick you want your soup to be. Use your nose to guide how much sherry you should add- it's probably a better guide than my crappy estimate. And don't worry about adding too much- you'll have a chance to cook off that alcohol taste a bit later on. Now pulverize this mixture until it's absolutely creamy. This might take a few minutes. Add the cream, basil, and salt and pepper, then pour the mixture into a saucepan along with the bay leaf and set it on medium heat, stirring occasionally. If you're using frozen cauliflower and chicken, go ahead and thaw it in the microwave, then put it in the pot with the rest of the soup. Take your time here to play with the flavors until you've got it how you want it. If you taste too much sherry, just let it cook off. That's the best part about soup- you've got tons of flexibility with the subtle flavors, so you can make it just right. This will make about 4 filling bowls, and it reheats perfectly.