Serves 6
Ingredients
450g mushrooms, finely chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1 brown onion, peeled and sliced
1 bay leaf
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 sprig of fresh thyme, or a pinch of dried thyme
½ cup white wine
1 mushroom stock cube (or chicken or vegetable)
1 cup full fat milk
2 ½ cups water
Salt and white pepper
Olive oil
2 tablespoons cream to garnish
Chopped parsley to garnish
Method
Take a medium sized pan and gently cook the onion in some olive oil until translucent. Add a tablespoon of butter, a pinch of salt then add the bay leaf, garlic, thyme and mushrooms. Cook the mushrooms on a medium heat. They may sweat a bit so you might need to stir them continuously to make sure most of the liquor at the bottom of the pan evaporates.
Add the wine and reduce this down until there is very little liquor at the bottom of the pan. Now add the stock cube, milk and water. Stir well then cover the pan and simmer for about 30 minutes. Keep checking the soup and stirring to make sure it isn’t “catching” on the bottom of the pan. You may notice some foam on the surface of the soup, you can skim this off with a large spoon or ladle and discard it.
Blitz the soup with a stick blender then season with salt and pepper. Check the consistency of the soup as you may need to add some more water to it if it is too thick.
To serve, pour into bowls then using a tablespoon, drizzle cream slowly over the surface of each bowl of soup. Top with chopped parsley then serve. Alternatively you could garnish the soup with some truffle oil and parmesan.