Wood Mushroom Soup

From Australian Gourmet Traveller, May 1999.

I’m living by myself for a week. This is a time when it is so easy to relax your usual standards and just pick up fast foods. I’ve resolved not to, so I’ll see how long I last. What I generally turn to when on my own is to make a large pot of soup that will last for several days, or make a big curry from all the vegetables in the refrigerator. Today I settled for soup.

I took a handful of dried porcini mushrooms and covered them with boiling water and left them to stand while I went on with the remainder.

I sliced 400g mixed mushrooms and fried them until soft in butter. They were taken from the frying pan and put aside while I sautéed a chopped onion and 2 chopped garlic cloves. When these had softened the mushrooms went back into the pan with the porcini mushrooms and their water. I added water to a level I felt appropriate and a vegetarian chicken stock cube. This was all brought to the boil and then simmered until the mixture had reduced about one-third.

The soup was tasted for seasoning and adjusted with salt and a goodly amount of freshly cracked black pepper. About 100ml cream was added and the soup simmered for another 15 minutes.

A stick blender was now used to puree the soup. It was served with a couple of slices of toasted sourdough.

A satisfying soup that managed to last me for two meals.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔