Inspired by
@dan_bo and
@User recipes for garlic soup, I nipped out to Tesco to get the needful and returned with eight dried heads of Spanish garlic and more. At an early stage I took fright at the idea of eight heads and only used five.
Five heads of bog-standard dried garlic broken into cloves but with their skins on
800ml chicken stock
500ml thick double cream
70 grammes basil pesto
1 chopped leak
3 large chopped mushrooms quickly fried in butter
pepper and salt
Put the garlic and leaks in a saucepan with the stock and simmer for twenty minutes. Getting rid of the skins on the cloves at the end of the simmer was a bit of a faff. I just grabbed a handful and let the pulp ooze out between my fingers before discarding the skins. Put everything back in the saucepan and add the shrooms, pesto and cream before attacking the liquid with a stick blender and adding seasoning. I ate mine with some French bread.
It's almost impossibly rich and after two bowlfuls I really couldn't eat another crumb. I'm not sure about leaving the skins on the cloves at the start. It seems to give the soup a slightly woody taste. It's not unpleasant but next time I'll try with the cloves skinned from the beginning. Oddly enough, the soup really doesn't seem to smell or taste strongly of garlic. I can't speak for myself though.