Garlic Soup for the Stuffy Soul, part 2

Posted a link to this recipe earlier, but I wanted to re-post it here to have for posterity (or as long as the blogosphere keeps and preserves such things.)

Izzy made it last night for dinner. Garlic essence lasted from 8 PM last night to (at least) 8 AM this morning. Meets Izzy's sufficient garlic rule (you can taste it with your AM coffee after brushing your teeth a couple of times.) He made a couple of flavor and spice modifications to the original recipe, noted below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Curative Garlic Soup

* 1/3 C. whole garlic cloves -- Izzy used 1 cup. Yep, One cup.
* 1 Tbsp minced garlic. Ignored.
* 1 Tbsp. roasted garlic. Ignored.
* 1 tsp fresh thyme, or 1/4 tsp dried thyme
* 1 tsp fresh basil or 1/4 tsp dried basil. Izzy most of a bag of basil, ~ 1/3 to 1/2 cup of fresh.
* 4 cans of vegetable broth
* 1 medium onion
* 1 bay leaf. Izzy used three.
* 1 Tbsp. olive oil. Who measures?
* 1/3 C. Half-and-Half
* 1/3 C. Parmesan cheese - shredded. Izzy used our fave, Locatelli Romano.
* Creole seasoning. Izzy used Cajun.
* Day-Old French or Italian bread. Izzy bought ready-made bagged croutons, then heavily seasoned them with the Cajun seasoning.

1. Add onions and some of the garlic cloves to a large soup pan with the T. of olive oil. When the onions begin to turn clear or brownish (don't over cook!), add the broth, basil, thyme, bay leaf, and garlic. Bring this to a boil.

2. When the soup begins to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for approximately 40 minutes.

3. In the meantime, make your croutons: Cube the bread, approximately 2-3 cups, and toast in the oven at 300 degrees. Remove from heat, place in a paper sack, coat with ~1 - 2 Tbsp. of olive oil and season with the Creole seasoning. (This is spicy- be conservative at first!). Set the croutons aside. NOTE: THE CROUTONS CAN BE MADE IN ADVANCE

Again, you can also season ready-made croutons in a bag. Much easier.

4. When the soup has simmered for the 40 minutes, add approx 1 1/2 C. of the croutons and stir in with a wire whisk until they have mostly dissolved. At this point, the whole garlic cloves should be "mushy".

5. Remove the bay leaf (or leaves...)

6. Add the half-and-half and Parmesan (Locatelli is better!) cheese and immediately remove the soup from heat.

7. If you have a hand-mixer, use this to blend the soup to a smooth consistency. You may also pour the soup into a blender.

8. Serve immediately and garnish with the remaining croutons, Parmesan (Seriously, don't use Parmesan. It's too mild. Get yourself some Locatelli!), and creole (or Cajun) seasoning.

Note: Surprisingly, the soup is actually quite mild. Really. I think the next time we'll try chicken or beef flavored stock.