My local grocery store often carries a pre-packed sampler of gourmet mushrooms. I've eyed them wistfully before, but always postponed buying them. However, when my organic veggie delivery service (Planet Organics, if you're curious) sent me fresh thyme the same week my local grocery store started carrying truffle oil, I knew it was fate.
If all you've ever had is Campbells, you may not be aware of how good real mushroom soup can taste. A real mushroom soup starts with cream, and fresh herbs, and chicken stock, and winds up being a rich, savory concoction with about as much relation to Campbells as a duck billed platypus has to a duck. It's delicious when made with the little bland white button mushrooms that everyone carries. It's decadent when made with truffle oil, oyster, pioppini and nameko mushrooms, and fresh thyme.
Cream of Mushroom soup
5 cups sliced mushrooms. The more flavorful, the better.
2 Tbsp butter
Splash white wine or sherry
1 tsp fresh thyme, or equivalent amount of dried thyme.
a few drops of truffle oil (optional)
1 14 oz can chicken stock.
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour
1 cup heavy cream, light cream, half and half, or milk.
Melt 2 Tbsp butter in medium saucepan over medium low heat. Add sliced mushrooms, thyme and splash of wine (and truffle oil if desired), and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms begin to release moisture, about 3-5 minutes. Remove mushrooms from heat and place in blender with chicken stock. Blend thoroughly.
In the same saucepan, melt 1 Tbsp butter over medium heat, and mix thoroughly with flour. Add cream or milk all at once, and stir until mixture is thickened and bubbly.
Add mushroom mixture to soup and heat through.
Serves 4 as a side dish, or 2 as a lunch. Garnish with chopped hazelnuts or fresh thyme.
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