Sunday, September 28, 2014

Velouté aux chanterelles - Wild Mushroom Soup

Our friend Lorenzo honoured us this weekend by bringing us to the spots where he picks wild chanterelle mushrooms. He informed us that it's a bit early in the season, but with his help we managed to harvest a little over a kilogram of the delicate flavoured beauties. Since they are specialty foods, and expensive, I've never cooked with them before, but I think this soup is a good starting place. It is mildly creamy, a little sweet, and gently mushroomy.

1 Tbsp (½ oz/14gr) butter
1 shallot, finely diced
2 tsps flour
2 cups chicken broth (veg broth for Vegetarian)
¾ cup white wine
2 Tbsps finely chopped fresh parsley
¼ tsp finely chopped fresh thyme
7 oz fresh chanterelles
½ cup milk
½ cup crème fraîche
¼ tsp salt
Pepper, to taste
  1. In a soup pot melt the butter and add the shallot and flour. Cook until the butter bubbles and foams and the flour starts to go blond.
  2. Add the chicken stock, white wine, parsley and thyme. Bring to a slow boil, then cover and gently simmer for 15 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, shred the chanterelle mushrooms. At the end of the 15 minutes, add the mushrooms to the broth, and cook another 5 minutes. Bring to a slow boil.
  4. Low the heat to minimum. Add the milk, crème fraîche and salt. Gently simmer another 5 minutes.
  5. OPTION - at this point, you can either run the mixture in a blender for a velouté, or serve immediately with it all chunky.
  6. Before serving, grind some fresh black pepper on top.