Mushroon Soup Jaime Style
September 10, 2006
Here he is again, this time making a "real" mushroom soup that surprisingly contains no cream. The only problem I had with this recipe was that I had a very hard time finding dry porcini mushrooms. I finally had success at Whole Foods, although I am sure I could have found them at an Italian or import gourmet grocer much cheaper. The good thing was that Whole Foods had a wide selection of mushrooms, so I was able get all of my ingredients at once.
You will need:
- 1 package of dried porcini mushrooms
- 2 handfuls of fresh (washed) oyster, chitake (shiitake?), and cremini mushrooms, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 2 tbsp of butter
- 3 tbsp of olive oil
- handful of fresh thyme, leaves picked over
- 4 c of chicken or vegetable stock
- handful of fresh flat leaf parsley
- 1 lemon, zest and juice
- Optional: 2 tbsp of marscapone, or substitute 3 tbsp of heavy whipping cream
Step one: Place the porcini in a bowl and pour 2 c of boiling water over it, soaking while you cook.
Step Two: In a large stock pot combine the olive oil, garlic, onion, butter, thyme, and mushrooms over medium heat. Cook for 4-6 minutes or until mushrooms start to sweat. Stir and add your soaked, chopped porcini mushrooms (drain well first, reserving liquid). Season with salt and pepper.
Step Three: Add the rest of your porcini reserve liquid, stock, white wine and simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes.
Step Four: After cooking, remove half of the soup and puree it in a blender; return puree to the pot. Add parsley and marscapone or cream. Serve the soup in bowls with a crostini toast, a squeeze of lemon juice and pinch of lemon zest.
This soup is a bit of a labor of love, so if you don't feel like going through the trouble of finding porcini mushrooms, I suggest leaving this soup to the more inspired cooks.
