For some reason or other when autumn arrives in earnest my cooking mood turns to soup. I love soup, prepare it frequently, and, if you’ve noticed, many of the recipes I’ve presented are for soup.
Here’s a soup for people who are real mushroom-lovers.
Since the theme of this week’s Carnival is Red, White, and Blue, perhaps I should note that when properly prepared this soup is WHITE(-ish). My Clam Chowder is another white soup as is Blue Owl White Chili. For another white recipe, try Apple Snow.
For a RED soup try my Cioppino. When made with cranberry, raspberry, or strawberry juice, Ilmapuuro is red.
As George Carlin has famously noted there’s no such thing as BLUE food. For the closest thing to it, make the Ilmapuuro with blueberry juice.
Three Mushroom Soup
Serves 4
¼ cup minced shallots, scallions, or onions
2 Tbsp. butter
½ lb. white mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed, and sliced
½ lb. “wild” mushrooms (porcini, morels, shiitake, or, in a pinch, portobello), cleaned, woody parts removed, and sliced
¼ cup dried mushrooms
3 cups chicken stock
¼ cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp. fresh tarragon (or, even better, chervil), chopped
Salt and pepper
- Soak the dried mushrooms in ½ cup boiling water for twenty minutes, squeeze as much liquid as you can from the mushrooms, and chop the mushrooms. Reserve the liquid!
- Saute the shallots, scallions, or onions in the butter in a large saucepan over low-medium heat until they’re transparent, about three minutes.
- Add the sliced white and wild mushrooms, stir to coat with butter, cover, and cook for 5 or 6 minutes until the mushrooms have started to release their liquid.
- Add the chicken stock, chopped re-constituted dried mushrooms, and reserved mushroom liquor and simmer, partially covered, until the mushrooms are cooked, about 20 minutes.
- Add the heavy cream and tarragon or chervil, bring the soup to the boil, correct the seasoning, and serve.
This soup is incredibly delicious.
There’s a bit of a dispute about cleaning mushrooms. They’re generally grown in manure—you will have to clean them. Purists insist that mushrooms be cleaned by wiping with a damp towel. For the purposes of this recipe washing is just fine.
I’ve added this recipe to my master list of recipes.
