Mushroom Soup

Well it does help if you like mushrooms and I LOVE mushrooms so you can't really go wrong with mushroom soup as there's not much else in it apart from mushrooms.  You can of course sex it up by adding wild mushrooms, cream and booze which is precisely what I did - all three of them - and you end up with a seriously delicious soup.

Like all soups it does help to start with a good stock and if you can be bothered and have the time (and the chicken bones!) you make your own stock and use that as the base of the soup.  Frankly it's often too much trouble and chicken stock isn't like beef stock in that it can end up pretty bland.  That said better using bland chicken stock and adding Knorr than just adding Knorr to water! Also when it comes to the mushrooms,  Sainsbury's basics were the best buy. I like the fact that they are higgledy piggledy and misshapen.  I think they taste better because of it.

What you will need

• 400g of mushrooms
• 30g dried wild mushrooms (including the water from rehydrating)
• 1 large onion
• 1 large potato (for thickening)
• 4oz or 120g of butter
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 Bay leaves
• 1 heaped tablespoon of chopped parsley
• salt and pepper
• 8fl oz of cream
• 3 tablespoons of medium sherry

You start by chopping everything and add the butter to a saucepan big enough for all the ingredients (sounds obvious but the number of times I don't get this right and have to move up a size).  Once the butter has melted add the chopped onion and garlic and simmer gently until they are cooked through avoiding any browning as this affects the taste.  

Next add the stock, the Bay leaf, parsley, stock, potato and mushrooms (don't forget you need to rehydrate the wild mushrooms and don't through the water away, add it to the pot).  This needs to simmer for about 20minutes until everything is cooked through.  At the end of this add the sherry and simmer for another couple of minutes.  

You now need to blend the soup which will turn into a semi smooth soup, but before you do that take out the Bay leaves.  You can add some of the cream and blend holding back some for garnish along with a sprig of parsley.

Serve with chunks of fresh bread....yum!