Wild Mushroom Potato Soup

I got the wild mushroom part of this recipe from Soups for All Seasons and the basic potato soup part from How to Cook Everything (loosely).

Soups for All Seasons is a lovely little book I bought while "leaf-peeping" in Vermont this weekend. We stopped at Taylor Farm in Londonderry, right outside of the Green Mountain National Forest. In addition to sampling local cheeses and checking out the cows, we stumbled upon this cookbook that is a collection of recipes by the "Green Mountain Gardeners," from Landgrove, Weston, Londonderry and Peru, Vermont. I haven't been able to find a website for them, otherwise I'd post the link!

I thought of adding potatoes to the recipe because I wanted it to be really thick (maybe it's the new cold fall weather that is driving this). Anyway, there were still potatoes in abundance to be had at the Farmer's Market, so I went for it.


What you'll need:

• Yellow onion, 2 cups, finely chopped
• Fresh mushrooms, 2 lbs., thinly sliced (any kind is fine; 1 used 1 lb button, 1 lb portabella)
  
• Heavy cream (about 1/2 cup - you can omit this as well)
• Large potatoes, 4, diced into small pieces
• Dried morels/chanterelles, etc.., 2-3 ounces
• Madeira or port wine, 1 cup (I actually used vermouth and some red wine since that's what we had, but I think it would be much better with port or madeira)
  
• Butter, 8 tbsp (= 1 stick)
  
• Salt and pepper
• 4 cups of chicken stock
• Herbs/spices to taste ( I used thyme)
  

Soak the dried morels in the madeira/port for an hour and remember to stir it around every now and then. I bought some delicious dried morels when we were in Spain and have been (too?) hesitant to use them in a less-than perfect recipe. This was pretty close to what I had in mind. We also had some dried oyster mushrooms, so I threw those in, too.








After the dried mushrooms have started soaking, you can dive into the rest of your food prep. Chop all the veggies and cut the fresh mushrooms up into thin slices.


Add half the butter (4 tbsp) to a large soup pot and add the onions. Cook on low heat (with cover) for about ten minutes, stirring. Add the rest of the butter (another 4 tbsp), then add the chopped potatoes. Stir for another 10 minutes. Make sure to keep stirring here, otherwise the potatoes could start to stick to the pot. Add the fresh mushrooms (5-10 minutes). These will release some more water to the mix, so you can stir for a while without worrying about burning.

Once the mushrooms are cooked, transfer soaked morels to the soup pot. Then add the remaining port/madeira, leaving the settled sediments out (I used a serving spoon to get the liquid and leave the sediments). Stir. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and let simmer for about half an hour. Remember to keep stirring all the while.










Strain the soup with a strainer, and add all solids to the blender to puree (add some of the soup liquid to help it puree). It's probably better to do it in two steps, since there is so much. Return the blended contents to the soup pot with remaining liquid. Reheat (on low heat) and add cream as desired.


Like I mentioned before, I think this would be better with port wine to soak the mushrooms in. Also, I might add more chicken broth and/or salt next go round. Overall, though, it was a fun and tasty recipe, with lots of room for variation in the future.