Mushroom Soup

Saturday 1.40pm

Keriann kindly gave us a big bag of mushrooms which was presented to me along with Nicolas request for mushroom soup. – So here it is.

I have made double the quantity ( two pints ) I usually make cos I had lots of mushrooms and because it is near the end of the month and having no money left, I want something in the freezer to take to work for lunch.

- Into a pan goes some olive oil along with a half inch slice of butter to warm gently.

- Then in goes an onion, a clove of garlic and a stick of celery all roughly chopped.

- Leave to simmer gently until soft

- A pound of mushrooms wiped clean and roughly chopped and a bunch of parsley if you have it are added

- The mushroom have a lot of water so keep simmering until it all evaporates, this takes ages so I usually entertain myself by dancing round the kitchen in my usual manic and rather scary style. (“Walk on By” by The Stranglers was playing. You can find it on Youtube)

- Once the liquid is all gone, or you just get bored waiting a tablespoon of flour is stirred in and left to cook for a few minutes.

- two and a bit pints of half strength rapunzel vegetable stock then goes in and the whole lot left to cook

- ten/fifteen minutes is probably all that is required.

- I usually liquidize the lot now but you can eat it as it is of course. Oh and check for seasoning, with stock powder it probably will not need any salt but a good few grinds of black pepper are good.

- At this point I usually feel it needs a squeeze of lemon juice. But even better, to give that citrus edge, serve it with a dollop of Philadelphia. Or yoghurt. Or parmesan perhaps or that Hohepa cheese with cumin seeds in. Or go the other way to creamyness with a splodge of marscapone along with a zingy fresh salsa.

- And some walnut bread of course.

And thinking of walnuts, I have not tried it but I have a feeling that mushroom soup would be good thickened with nuts – walnuts or cashews, in which case I would miss out the flour of course and add the nuts at the end, having ground them and leaving them to soak in some stock whilst the soup cooks.

Mushroom soup – earthy, autumny, comforting.