Fancy Soup

The T-giving feast was a veritable success.   Strangely though, I felt I put far more effort into the appetizer than anything else, and that’s OKAY, as I view Thanksgiving as a practice run for the Christmas feast.  It was good though, the best soup I have ever made, and I think the best mushroom soup I’ve ever had.  This is all thanks to Jamie Oliver.  I used his Wild Mushroom Soup recipe as a template.  I used a variety of mushrooms, including portobello, crimini, and oyster.  I also made use of this massive container with a medley of dehydrated mushrooms, they just require some soaking before hand.  Included in the container (from Costco I believe) were all the edible mushrooms ever.. porcini, oyster, chanterelles, shiitake, morrell, etc.  I served this soup with Goats Cheese and Chive Gougères, which were also delicious, and will be detailed in the next post.

Mushroom Soup with Truffle Oil and Marscapone Cheese
Serves 5-6

Mushrooms: FRESH 6 large portobellos, 2 regular packages of cremini (approx 400 g),  1 regular package of oyster.
DRIED: 200g dried mushroom medley- porcini has a strong flavour that will contribute a lot.
2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
2 large shallops, chopped
White cooking wine or sherry
Olive oil
2 tsp marscapone
Handful of Fresh Parsley
Bunch of Fresh thyme
1 Pint of Veggie Stock
Squirt of Lemon
Dash of Black Truffle Oil
1 tbsp Unsalted butter

Hydrate mushrooms with boiling water.  Let soak approx 20 mins, or according to package instructions.  Meanwhile, roughly chop up all fresh mushrooms. Mince garlic and dice shallots.  In a large pan, heat some olive oil and add mushrooms.  Make sure the temp is on high, and keep the mushrooms moving! After a minute or two, add in the onion, shallots, butter, thyme, and a dash of cooking wine.  Cook for a few minutes, allowing wine to evapourate. Add the rehydrated mushrooms (which should be chopped).  Its a good idea to reserve a couple of the mushrooms, and set aside for garnishing purposes.  Also add strained soaking liquid.  Cook for 20 minutes until moisture has largely disseminated.

Add in the stock.  Bring to a boil and simmer for about 20 minutes. Using a food processor, pulse the soup so that mushrooms are all chopped and the soup has a smoother consistency.  Throw in chopped parsley and marscapone cheese.  Add a squirt of lemon to balance out the flavours, and season to taste.

Serve up the soup, plop a bit of marscapone cheese on top with a couple whole sauteed mushrooms.  Sprinkle a bit of fresh parsley, and drizzle with some truffle oil!

P.S. Thanks to my sis for the beaut. photos!