Garlic, some garlic, add some more garlic....

Last night, I tried yet another Emeril recipe (I need to stop, but by virtue of his longevity at Food Network, he pops up a lot when you search) for Beer Cheese Soup with Garlic Croutons and Kielbasa.

It came out v. "eh." I did, however, make a lot of substitutions and changes, so perhaps it would have been better had I stuck to the recipe. First off, the budget did not allow for $12 worth of cheese for the soup, so I subbed a mixture of Swiss and Cheddar for the Gruyere. Gruyere is a superior melting cheese, but I thought the Swiss/Cheddar mix would match our palates and budget a bit better. Second, I again used more leftover wedding Smithwick's (an ale) instead of the lager called for. And finally, I used dried thyme instead of fresh, but for this type of recipe, it is highly unlike that made so much of a difference.

My problems with this recipe:
1) The 6 tbsp of flour were not nearly enough to thicken it - I wasn't expected library paste, but it was still extremely runny. I ended up with a v. thin soup.
2) It was EXTREMELY salty, and if anything, I usually reduce the salt in recipes unless I can see that it is chemically/culinarily required. This may have been the kielbasa's fault, though, because 1 tsp of salt doesn't seem excessive for 8 cups of liquid.
3) The onion to garlic ratio is absurd. Between the 3 tbsp of garlic in the soup, and the 2 tbsp of garlic on the croutons, plus garlic in the kielbasa, I could literally smell garlic seeping out of my skin this morning, which is NOT a delightful morning smell. I'll have to ask R if he thought it was hot.
4) There was a v. weird bitter taste in the background of the soup. Again, maybe the kielbasa did something weird, maybe it was the beer. But I didn't take it early on in the cooking process, it came out late in the game. V. odd.

I still think the soup has potential, or potential with other modifications. I like the idea of a hearty, creamy beer cheese soup, even something with hunks of potatoes in it (sorry, Elle, I know you hate those potato hunks) or some nice bacon. But then I guess it becomes a baked potato soup. I guess I was expecting something that tasted more like an "everyman's" fondue in a soup form. If I try it again, we'll see how it turns out. But I'll probably wait for Fall...we're past soup season now.

The croutons are great. We used them on salads too. How can bread/butter/garlic/s&p not be good?

Side note - I'm sick of kielbasa. I don't know what possessed us to buy so much at the store a few weeks ago. We will be taking an indefinite hiatus.