Well the wind is howling today and there are branches coming off trees left, right and centre. I love this kind of weather, it just feels so exhilarating walking outside and makes being snuggled up inside even better. This kind of autumnal bluster seemed like the perfect day for soup. All my other soups have been tomato based so I tried something different and went for mushroom. I’m not crazy about how much salt this needed as I try to keep salt content down but it just didn’t taste any good without it. There was also a mix up with the shopping so I got regular closed cup mushrooms instead of the chestnut I wanted. To compensate I added more dried porcini and although the flavour is still good I think it would be even better with more flavoursome mushrooms.
Serves 6
8 slices dried porcini mushrooms
700g mushrooms, sliced
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
4 sprigs thyme
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
4 heaped spoons of creme fraiche
– Soak the dried porcini in 200ml cold water until soft.
– Heat a knob of butter and a few tbsp of oil in a large pan.
– Add the sliced mushrooms and stir until browned.
– Add the chopped onion, garlic and the leaves from the thyme and stir until softened.
– Add the porcini mushrooms and the liquid they soaked in, straining out any grit.
– Stir well and then add the stock and stir again.
– Bring to the boil and then simmer gently for 10 minutes.
– Allow to cool a little (nothing worse than accidental flying soup burns!) then use a stick blender to blend the soup until smooth but still reatining a bit of texture.
– Add the creme fraiche and a good amount of salt. Keep tasting and adding, you’ll know when you get there, it took at least 14 grinds of my salt mill. Then stir well to combine.
– Reheat before serving with fresh bread and butter.
Anna in the kitchen 