Garlic Soup

The weather here has been rainy all week and I thought it's a good day for soup. This Garlic Soup recipe came out of the WSU Alumni magazine. Cougar Gold cheese is made here at Washington State University and is rather famous in a smallish circle. Our family loves the cheese and many restaurants feature a mac and cheese made with Cougar Gold. It's an unusual sharp cheddar, it's made in tin cans. Maybe next week I will give you a brief history of the cheese. It's a fascinating story. Here you can buy a tin for as little at $15 (for about 2 pounds). I hear there are places in Seattle that sell it for over $50. On special weekends the lines at Ferdinands (the local ice cream/cheese shop on campus) wrap around the block and the cheese actually sells out.
When making this soup, remember that hot soups have a tendency to explode in the blender so don't fill up the pitcher and give it a little air now and again to prevent pressure build up. Also, you can skip the blanching if you peel the garlic by hand (I use a cloth designed to help grip jars to peel when I want whole garlic and do the smash and peel when I want minced)

Garlic Soup
2 heads garlic, separated and unpeeled
5 tb olive oil
5 cups chicken stock
2 teas fresh thyme or 1 teas dry
white pepper
3 egg yolks
grated cougar gold cheese (or other sharp cheddar)
blanch garlic 1 minute, drain and peel. Cook but do not brown in half the oil for 10 minutes. Add stock and seasonings. Simmer 30 minutes. Blend the soup in a blender, carefully. Return to saucepan and heat. Beat egg yolks and gradually add remaining oil. Stir a couple of spoonfuls of soup into eggs . Remove soup from heat and add eggs in a thin stream. Stir well. Sprinkle on cheese and serve.