Because cream of mushroom soup is so popular as a canned good, it kinda has a low-class
reputation. But I love the stuff, so what I've tried to do here is make high-class cream
of mushroom soup. It's a bit more expensive and more finicky than my typical soup recipes,
but it's honestly the best thing I've had to eat in awhile. It's very strong, very delicious
— if you really like mushrooms, and I do.
But the first thing is an onion, peeled and roughly chopped. It's gonna get pureed, so
it doesn't have to be pretty at this stage. Pot on pretty high heat, some olive oil in
there, and I'm just gonna stir this until it's soft and starting to brown.
You'll notice I'm using my Chrissy Teigen pan, not a soup pot. This is gonna go a lot
faster if I cook it in a wide vessel. A narrow soup pot just doesn't have as much hot pan
surface area. After about 7 minutes in the pan, that's good enough.
In goes a couple tablespoons of butter. You could just use more olive oil instead — an
amount roughly equal in weight to this quarter cup of all-purpose flour I'm stirring in to
make a roux. About 30g of flour. If you have a enough fat in there you can stir it into
a thick paste. It might look too dry until you cook it for a minute. A roux will loosen
up when it really gets going, and I'll just gently brown that for a few minutes, just
for flavor.
Before it burns, we'll need something to deglaze the pan. A wise man once said, I've got my
Courvoisier right here. Actually it's Hennessy. Any cognac, and brandy would be fine — or
whisky. Any liquor aged in a wooden barrel goes amazing with mushrooms, in my opinion.
It's like tasting the essence of the forest — the tree and the fungus that grows through
it. I probably put in a whole cup of cognac, 240mL.
But we obviously need a little more liquid, so I'm just slowly mixing in about two cups
of plain water. If you put it all in at once it'll be hard to stir out the lumps. I used
plain water instead of stock because this is gonna be my stock — dried mushrooms.
Any kind — I'd say just buy one of the cheaper varieties. These are maitakes, and I try to
snap apart the biggest chunks as I drop them in.
This recipe will have fresh mushrooms, but the flavor base is dry mushrooms — an ounce
total, 30g. Each of these packages is half an ounce. Dried mushrooms are a far more potent
source of umami and shroomy flavors than fresh mushrooms are, but some people are bothered
by the tiny grains of sand that are often stuck in them. You'd have to look real close
to these porcini to see anything.
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And if a little sandy grit on dried mushrooms bothers you, here's how you deal with it.
Bring some water to a boil — the microwave is fine. Take it off the heat, stir in the
mushrooms. They rapidly start to grow which opens their structure and helps release any
sand. Let it sit for maybe a half hour, and you've got what they call "mushroom tea."
The liquid from the first steep usually contains most of the flavor from the mushrooms.
To keep out the sand, you can just throw a coffee filter into a strainer and pour the
tea through. Keep the mushrooms behind. The sand is so small it would go through the sieve
without the coffee filter in there. That is a huge amount of flavor we've just put into
the soup. Then you could just throw the mushrooms in, but the package tells you to give them
a wash, in case any sand is still sticking.
Truthfully, I almost never bother with any of that. The sand doesn't bother me and rarely
have I even noticed it. I just throw them in dry — you do you. So I've got an ounce,
30g total of dried mushrooms and four cups total of water, almost a liter.
I like at least a couple tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce in here. Yes, it's made with anchovies.
You could use soy sauce instead, or a yeast extract, like Marmite. Or just skip it. I'll
grind in some pepper to start with. The Worcestershire brought enough salt for now. And at this point
I'll just cover this so not too much evaporates and simmer on low heat for at least a half
hour. An hour would be better.
During which time I can work on my pound of fresh mushrooms. About half a kilo. Whatever
kind you can get. These are cremini, these are baby shiitake, and I've got a few big
chanterelles in there. I'll just give everything a quick rinse to get off any big chunks of
dirt still on them.
Time to trim off any woody bits of stem and then slice thinly. I think thin slices are
better in something as delicate as a soup. These cute little shiitake I might just cut
in half. I want to see the identifiable shape of mushrooms in the finished soup. This might
look like a gargantuan pile, but it's really the minimum you need. They're gonna shrink
down considerably here in my widest pan. I've got a mixture of hot olive oil and butter
in there — I like that combination with mushrooms, but whatever fat you use, use a
lot of it.
I'll put in a pinch of salt and some pepper to start with. I think you really do taste
the seasoning the mushrooms absorb in the sauté. It doesn't all dissolve into the soup
later.
The wider the pan, the quicker this goes. I need to boil most of the water out of them
before I can really start browning them. While I wait I can peel and chop a few garlic cloves
that I'll put in with the mushrooms right at the end.
We're getting there now. Cooking these down also concentrates their flavor. I think when
you make soup, things need to be very strongly flavored, because they're gonna be diluted
by a lot of water in the end. And now that these are dry enough, they'll start getting
really golden brown. Gotta stir constantly at this stage or they'll burn. Almost done,
so in goes the garlic and I'll fry that for a couple minutes, until I see the little pieces
just starting to go golden.
There's some good brown stuff stuck to the pan that we can deglaze. Might as well use
the same brandy as before, derp de derp de derp. Hello! I forgot that'll happen on a
gas stove. I'm used to electric. With gas, you gotta turn the heat off — vapors or
droplets from a high-proof spirit can escape and ignite on the open flame. But, no harm
done. This is perfect. Heat off.
Here's my soup base after about an hour. And honestly, you could just throw the fresh mushrooms
in with the rehydrated ones right now and call it a day. But the dried ones are still
a little leathery. And I think can get even more flavor out of them by pureeing this,
as smooth as possible.
A food processor or a carafe-style blender would probably do a better job, but I just
think the stick blender is easier to get out of the cupboard and it's easier to clean.
Plenty smooth, that is. You could eat it just like that, totally. Or if you're feeling extra
fancy, you could pass it through a sieve. This'll get us a silkly smooth texture in
the end. Just grind around on the fibers with a wooden spoon and you'll have surprisingly
little waste in the end.
I'll rinse that pan out real quick before we pour this back in. I generally hate pureed
soups because every bite is exactly the same. That's what the sliced fresh mushrooms are
for — heterogeneity. They're safe to go in now.
And it's time for the eponymous cream in the cream of mushroom soup. If you don't want
diary, use coconut cream instead. I might pour in as much as a cup, 240mL by the end.
But I'll be conservative up front. Stir that in and have a taste. Needs a bunch more salt,
and some fresh pepper right here at the end. And now you can just boil this a few minutes
this until the cream thickens up a bit. Boil it gently — if the cream gets way too hot
it can kinda curdle in there.
Maybe I want a little more cream. What I don't need is any more acid, because I used a lot
of brandy, and that stuff is surprisingly acidic when you concentrate it. If you had
to skip the brandy and you couldn't use white wine or anything instead, I'd put in a splash
of vinegar at this stage. Apple cider vinegar would be particularly nice. You don't need
much, it certainly won't be enough to curdle the cream.
We are done. That's probably enough soup for four or five dinner-size portions — twice
that as a side or an appetizer. For pretty, you could drizzle a little more cream on top.
For company, it might be nice to give them an assortment of fresh herbs they can stir
in at the table — whatever they'd like. I think this tarragon goes very well with
mushrooms. It's a liquorish flavor, and it sure looks pretty.
Some whole young parsley leaves instead would look awful nice too. And I think my favorite
herb for this is thyme. I aways think fresh thyme taste kinda like the ground, in a good
way. It's mossy. Thyme with the mushrooms and the brandy aged in wood — it really
is like eating the forest. That broth has a very powerful mushroom flavor from the dried
mushrooms. You can drag some garlic toast through that if you want. You can freeze any
leftovers — just re-heat it gently to keep the cream from splitting.
But if you love mushrooms as much as I do, leftovers will not be a thing.