Mushroom Leek Soup with Parsley Dumplings - ATTBTA
There have been multiple people who have asked after this soup recipe. It is hands down my favourite soup I’ve ever made, both at home as well as professionally. It’s the kind of soup that makes my dad say things like, “now, that’s so good it’d ‘bout make your tongue slap your brains out,” which always makes my mum look at him as if he’s lost his mind. Hopefully you will enjoy it just as much, brain-slapping notwithstanding. Measurements of spices have been guestimated as best I can, but in the end it all was eyeballed from the start and so will be more like alchemy and art than following a recipe. Try it yourself! Add more onion, more mushrooms, use shallots, mix it up! Figure out how you like it, what looks right, and enjoy!
As a warning, this soup can take quite a while to make (a couple hours, I’d say?) as there are multiple pots used and, of course, making dumplings takes a bit of time. If you’ve someone to help you, make an event of it. Eat snacks, drink beverages, laugh and listen to music. Or, if you are working by yourself, have the same fun with yourself. :) Recipe details below the cut.
INGREDIENTS
SOUP
2 cups water
3/4 ounce dried porcini mushrooms. Very important that they’re porcini!
2 1/2 Tbsp oil, olive or rapeseed
3 Tbsp butter
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound crimini (baby bella) mushrooms, sliced
1 Tbsp dried thyme. Fresh works too.
Fine sea salt
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/3 cup red wine (minimum), any kind-- fruity, dry, tart, been open for 3 weeks (oops)
1 large onion, quartered and sliced
3-4 leeks, washed, halved, cut into wee half moons up to the pale green. Tops can be kept frozen with other veggie bits to make homemade vegetable broth later.
8 cups vegetable or chicken broth, chef’s choice. Never tried it with beef but I don’t doubt it would be good
Pinch of red pepper flakes; heavy pinch if it’s cold out.
1 heaping Tbsp of paprika
Big handful of fresh chives, chopped, for garnish. You’re going to want a lot, trust me.
1 tsp white sugar
A whole bunch of black pepper. Don’t be shy.
A bay leaf. Two bay leaves. The whole tree. (No, only 2)
**Optional: a heavy dash of worcestershire in with the broth/liquid!
DUMPLINGS
1/3 cup sour cream
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, room temperature, chopped into cubes or pats
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup all purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
Heavy pinch of ground nutmeg
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley. Or just a bunch. Eye ball it, all the above measurements are made up with a shrug anyway.
PREPARATION
Bring 2 cups water and porcini mushrooms to boil in small saucepan. Let that sit to the side, covered, while you do the next few steps.
Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add crimini mushrooms and saute a couple minutes until they start releasing moisture. Dump in thyme, paprika, chopped garlic, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Sprinkle with sea salt and sauté another couple minutes until the garlic is fragrant. Pour in the red wine and red wine vinegar and let it bubble away for a bit until there’s a bit less liquid and your mushrooms and done.
Melt the butter in another heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; saute until they start to go limp and translucent. Add in the sugar and stir, continuing to cook until they start to brown juuuust a bit. Add leeks; reduce heat to medium, sprinkle with sea salt, and sauté until vegetables are soft and golden, stirring often, about another 15 minutes. Don’t worry if the bottom of the pan starts to get little brown ghosts of onions appearing on it. That’s a good thing, scrape all that up with the onions and dump them into your soup pot where you cooked the mushrooms.
Return to your porcini mushrooms. Take them from the (now dark brown) mushroom liquid, squeeze out the excess, and shop them small. Toss your porcini bits into the pot with everything else. Pour in reserved mushroom cooking liquid, through a sieve to catch any sediment. Pour in your broth of choice and bring to a boil. Simmer 10-15 minutes so the flavors can percolate and deepen.
DUMPLINGS:
Mix together your flour, salt, nutmeg, and parmesan. Add in the two eggs and mix, with a fork or with your fingertips, until you have a bunch of semi-moist lumps of flour. Add in your sour cream and 6 Tbsp butter and work together, again with fork or with finger tips. As the dough begins to come together, toss in your chopped parsley and fold it in. This dough is wet and sloppy, but should be workable. Add up to another 1/2 cup flour; it all depends on your humidity, you want it still sticky but workable! Once it’s come together, fold for another 2-3 minutes. Add a little more flour if you want firmer dumplings similar to pierogie dough or if it’s too wet and sticky to manage;
Bring large pot of salted water to boil. Using a teaspoon or just your fingers, scoop pieces/pinches of dough about the size of a cherry. Drop into boiling water. Working quickly, repeat about 10 more times. When dumplings rise to surface, simmer until cooked through, 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer dumplings to large plate. Repeat with remaining dough. Make double dumplings if you, like me, are here for the dumps. Also, if the water isn’t too heavily salted (though the dumplings do absorb some as they cook), let it cool and dump it on your garden or lawn for a little pick me up for the plants. Or maybe ladle one ladlefull into the main soup pot for a bit extra of that flavor. Whatever pleases you.
Melt 3 tablespoons butter in large skillet over medium heat. Working in 2 batches, add dumplings to skillet. Cook until browned on each side, 2 to 3 minutes per side.
Chop chives. Place 6-10 little dumplings in a large bowl. Put 12 in. Put a solid 15 dumplings in your bowl. Ladle soup over top. Sprinkle generously with chives. Enjoy the best soup you’ve ever had.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapter 9 (!!!!!!) of A Tale is here! Get ready kids, it’s a long ‘un!
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They fall together.
“No!” The scream rips out of Ciri before she can stop it. The pebbles around the lot jump and scatter.
Jaskier lands overtop the soldier with a punched-out sound. For a moment, Ciri fears to look and see a blade stuck from his back, or blood soaking through the blue of his jacket. Her hands cover her mouth over a scream. She can’t, not again. Not the red of blood on fine blue cloth, not again.
But the fight isn’t over, and there is no blood. The scout scrabbles at Jaskier’s eyes with his off hand. Frantic, she looks and finds the sword pinned with the scout’s hand under one of Jaskier’s knees. With a jerk Jaskier bats the hand away and grabs for something at his belt. His dagger flashes in his hand.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapter 8 of A Tale Told Before, Told Again is live! Thank you everyone for all the love (and for all the patience)! And in advance... I’m sorry.
*
Before, Jaskier had promised Ciri that he would protect her. With Dara tentatively joining them, that promise now extended to him as well. Jaskier would stand by it.
He just hadn't realized how soon he would be pressed to prove it.
I was just thinking the other night of how perfect jaskier fits into ciri's and dara's lives as a sort of adult authority figure at this point: he can relate to ciri's noble background, but also the harsh reality that has been dara's. uhhh anyway so yeah i am still thinking about ATTBTA and i think you should know that
Yes exactly so!!! He’s in such an interesting position as a nobleman turned bard in that sense-- he has all the knowledge, raising, and deportment of a noble at his fingertips; but being a traveling minstrel, has also learned quite a lot of what life is like for the lower classes and for less ‘honorable’ professions and for his own part has a few fingers in a few disreputable pies. He is a good middle point to balance Dara and Ciri from.It also offers the possibility of some funny little moments where Ciri, who has certain ideas about troubadours, might be shocked to see him fall into the part of the nobleman when needed; or where Dara, who can only see a Purse when he looks at him in his silly silks and doublets, might be shocked to catch a glimpse of those skills he’s learned on the streets... ;) the fact that you’re still thinking about ATTBTA fills my heart right up to the top <333 thank you so much, seeing your message first thing in the morning was so surprising and brightened my day!
I’m working on the next chapter of A Tale and hooooooooooooooh my god i just wrote the tenderest moment and it’s KILLING ME y’aaall.
when i said this to my partner, whining pathetically and clutching my chest like a southern belle, their response was: “is this the [writer’s] equivalent of laughing at your own joking?”
.......................yes.
she’s provided the sound track for writing / daydreaming ATTBTA and The Witcher in general and I’ve just started assigning songs to character. Like,
Mousesack: when i was older
Memories burn like a forest fire
Heavy rain turns any funeral pyre to mud
In the flood
When I was older
I was a sailor on an open sea
But now I’m underwater
And my skin is paler than it should ever be
Obviously, Mousesack I connect heavily to the sea. The mournful sound of this song, how dark it is, first caught my attention for him, especially after having written the scenes of his fight against the compulsion spell. And then, singing about dreaming and on my back again, dreaming… where you and I are the best of friends. I couldn’t help but think of how we the audience are so responsive to Ciri having lost everyone in her life… but so, here, has Mousesack. He came to Cintra with Eist. Is it safe to assume they were friends? We’re shown it, him the confidant at Eist’s right hand at the ball. They’ve known each other decades at this point, as we saw (and wasn’t that a fun and poignant shock, to have been introduced to him older, silvering, and staid, just to flash back in a later episode and to see him grinning and merry and mischievous, younger.) And then his love and respect for Calanthe was so visible in that last scene with her, built for over a decade. They mellowed together, the two of them. I can’t imagine it was an easy relationship to build, but it ends all the same.
But what really did it for me was the above verses. Mousesack comes from the sea and will always return to it, even if only in his memories. When I was older / I was a sailor on an open sea makes sense to me in a hard to qualify way. Something about how war makes children of us all, how loss can make us feel so young in the most lost, most powerless way. How he might look back on his memories like looking forward- looking back-- made young by loss. When I was older / I was a sailor on an open sea.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapter 7: to be in the room, pt. 2 is live! Jaskier’s perspective, including: his thoughts on Dara; concerns for the future; a glimpse into our favourite bard’s past. And, most importantly... ... ... ... ...
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Jaskier’s quest found him once again enveloped in the utterly unbearable scent of roasting nuts, mouth awash with longing. He tried not to focus on the memory of the little morsels as they fell into the mud but, well…
