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Mushroom Soup Thanks to George Mizner "If you like mushrooms this is a good recipe to add to your cook book. The mushroom soup I make is largely taken from Julia Child with some minor modifications. The use of dill rather than thyme is one of those." 2 quarts Organic Chicken Stock 2 pounds mushrooms - firm and fresh. Champigions or/and cremini work well. 1/4 pound butter 1 cup heavy cream 2 egg yolks 1/2 yellow onion or 1 large shallot finely chopped 1 package fresh dill or 1 Tbs dried dill 5 parsley sprigs 1 bay leaf Juice of 1/2 lemon 5 Tbs flour Salt and pepper Optional: dried porcini, caraway seed. In a large saucepan combine the chicken stock, the clean stems from 2 lbs mushrooms coarsely chopped, bay leaf, parsley sprigs, half the dill, and the caraway and porcini if you are using these. Dried porcini (boletus edulis, Stein Piltz, Cepes ) add a wonderful flavor to the soup if you can get them. Bring to a boil and simmer slowly covered while you prepare and cook the other ingredients. Finely chop the onion or shallot and sauté slowly in a heavy bottomed large pot. I use one of my Le Creuset enameled cast iron casseroles for this. Cook 10 to 12 min until they are translucent but not brown. Increase heat to medium and one tablespoonful at a time add the flour whisking constantly to make a thick roux. Cook, continuing to whisk for 4 min to insure that the flour is fully cooked and does not impart an uncooked flour taste to the soup. Off heat add the simmering broth, slowly at first and whisking constantly to prevent lumps. I fish out the bay leaf and parsley sprigs and add the rest of the ingredients to the soup. Others strain everything out of the broth. Your option. Cut mushroom caps into thin slices or small squares (these don't stick together so much while sautéing) and dividing them into 2 batches so as not to crowd them, sauté with butter in a large saucepan over high heat adding half the lemon juice to each batch and seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Once the butter begins to come back out of the mushrooms, and it will if you keep stirring, cook only a minute or two more and then dump into the simmering soup. With all the mushrooms in the soup add the remaining dried dill or discarding the stems, the remains of the dill finely chopped and simmer the soup covered for 10 minutes more. Cool slightly and puree in a blender then return to pot and bring briefly to the boil. At this point the soup can be refrigerated for a week or frozen for a year or carried to completion. What you have at this point is a good mushroom soup that can be eaten as is by people on a diet. If you want a great mushroom soup that will have your guests asking for the recipe take the next step. In a large bowl whip together 2 egg yolks and a cup of heavy cream or maybe a bit more. Bring the soup to a boil and add to the cream mixture a bit at a time whisking constantly until you have tripled the volume. Then pour the whole thing back into the soup pot and bring back just to a simmer, enough to poach the egg yolk but not to boil it. Serve at once garnishing if you wish with fresh dill, thinly sliced mushroom caps, parsley or croutons. |
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