Forest Mushroom Soup
Ingredients: Soup
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 3 shallots each, minced
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
- 2 pounds mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
- 1/2 ounce dried porcini or shiitake
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (freshly grated is best)
- 1/2 cup Madeira
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 cups water
- 3 cups low-sodium chicken stock
- 1 cup Creme Fraiche or Latin-style sour cream
- 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- Kosher salt to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Ingredients: Mushroom Garnish
- 1 pound sliced wild mushrooms (chef’s sampler, shiitake, oyster, enoki or other fancy mushrooms)
- 1 sprig fresh thyme
- 1 shallot
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Kosher salt to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Ingredients: Goat Cheese Crouton
- 1 loaf French bread, thickly sliced
- 2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 6 ounces fresh goat cheese
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
DIRECTIONS:
Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a large, heavy bottomed stock pot or Dutch oven. Add the shallots and garlic and allow to cook until translucent. In small amounts, add and sauté the mushrooms. Add nutmeg and Madeira and cook the mushrooms until they absorb all the liquid. Remove the mushrooms to a bowl. Add another 4 tablespoons of butter to the pot and stir in the flour. Add the chicken stock to the pot with the water and bring to a boil while whisking constantly. Put half the mushrooms into a blender and puree with enough of the soup liquid to make it smooth. Continue with the other half of the mushrooms. Stir in the lemon juice and sour cream, and adjust the salt and pepper seasoning.For the mushroom garnish, melt the butter in a hot skillet. Toss in the wild mushrooms, shallots and thyme. Allow the mushrooms to brown then pull the skillet off the heat. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
To prepare the goat cheese crouton, pull the parsley leaves from their stems and chop coarsely. Blend the chopped parsley with goat cheese. Just before serving, sprinkle the sliced bread with good olive oil and toast in the oven or under a broiler. Spread the herbed goat cheese onto the toast.
Ladle the soup into warmed bowls, garnishing with the sautéed mushrooms and a piece of toast with goat cheese.ing if needed.