Cream of Poblano Soup

After my mom died, I was organizing her stuff when I discovered she had some 1960's cook books from Time Life, Foods of the World. The books came as a set of 7, each dedicated to a different county or region of the world. I decided to try my hand and chose a French soup, cream of mushroom, but I wanted to give it a Texas twist. So I got to thinking and ….why not poblano peppers. A great soup when things are starting to cool down outside. I adapted this recipe for garlic once, which I was told was like drinking liquid warmth. If you like to cook like I do, this is a great soup to play with, make it cream of anything, just have a good time, maybe open a bottle of wine. I will bold where I made a change to recipe.

1 ½ lbs Poblano peppers
5 tsps butter
6 tsps flour
6 cups chicken stock
2 egg yolks
¾ cup heavy cream
Salt
White pepper

Rub poblanos with olive oil. Roast poblanos in 350 degree oven for 45mins on a cookie sheet. Turn once or twice. Place hot, cooked peppers in paper bag and seal. Let the bag stand for 15mins before cleaning the poblanos. Discard the poblanos outer skin, seeds and stem. Set cleaned poblanos to side.

Melt 5 tsps butter in 4 – 6 quart saucepan over moderate heat. Add flour and make a roux. Cook about a 1min over low heat, stir constantly. Do not brown roux. Add Chicken stock, beating constantly to blend stock and roux. Stir until this cream soup base comes to a boil, thickens and is perfectly smooth. Add poblanos and simmer on low heat for about 15mins.

Puree the hot soup then pour through a fine sieve back into saucepan. Blend your egg yolks and cream together at this time. Whisk in the hot pureed soup, 2 tsps at a time, until ½ cup has been added. Then reverse the process and slowly whisk the now-warm egg-yolk-and-cream mixture into the soup.

Bring to boil, and boil for 30mins, stirring constantly. Remove pan from heat, taste and season with salt and pepper.

I just love this soup. The creamy poblano taste is wonderful. I also like to sprinkle bacon over the top or maybe diced cooked potatoes. Sorry no picture, I guess I was just thinking about my mom.