Restaurant-style ginger-scented shrimp and mushroom soup: Day 17

This is my new favourite soup. And, no, it's not because it takes less than 15 minutes to make from start to finish. Although, I must admit, I find short prep times in a recipe very appealing on a busy weeknight. A bag of frozen shrimp (uncooked and peeled) is my new 'must-have' freezer item. Between this recipe and the Fast-fix paella, I now know that I can always fix up an incredibly tasty meal in the blink of an eye (well, several blinks that take up less than 30 minutes) with most of the ingredients readily available in my kitchen.

I feel a twinge of sadness for people with an aversion to mushrooms as I find them to be so flavourful and versatile. Thankfully, everyone in our household loves them as much as I do. My preparation time for this recipe took a little longer than the five minutes mentioned in the cookbook. I had purchased a lot of mushrooms and I wanted to ensure I didn't crowd them when they were cooking, so I cooked them in a few batches and set them aside. Apparently, mushrooms release a lot of moisture when you cook them, so you want to avoid crowding them or they will end up being steamed. You also don't want to wash them under running water (they'll end up soggy and flavourless from soaking up the additional moisture) but rather gently clean them with a damp cloth or paper towel.

I forgot to buy bamboo shoots but I will add them next time. The soup was so flavourful that I didn't even notice they were missing. My husband and I loved this soup. Between his first and second bowl, he declared, "It tastes like we're eating at a restaurant." I felt like charging him for the next helping. Restaurants sometimes offer free coffee refills but never bottomless soup, right?

The photo in the cookbook reminded me of soups I have had in Thailand many years ago. The soups were always served with a rounded scoop of white rice on the side so I decided to do the same. If you'd like to do likewise, make sure you put the rice on before you start the rest of the recipe. The soup is so fast and easy to prepare you wouldn't want to be sitting around waiting for the rice to finish cooking, would you?