Cape Cod Wild Cream of Mushroom Soup
It’s that time of year when hens are flushing like crazy throughout New England. There is nothing better to enjoy on a cool fall night than a hearty bowl of delicious mushroom soup and my friend Lisa, who lives on Cape Cod, has the best recipe I have ever made or tasted.
No surprise, the recipe requires a lot of good butter and cream. For those interested in a cream-less mushroom soup, don’t worry, that recipe is coming next!
I like hen of the woods/maitake, mixed with a second mushroom (hericium is a personal favorite, if you are lucky enough to have some – otherwise for wild mushrooms I enjoy winter chanterelles, beefsteaks, or hedgehogs). Or, you can purchase a store bought mushroom, your choice!
Ingredients
- ½ yellow onion, diced
- 1 to 1.5 pounds of hen of the woods
- If desired, add a half pound of other wild mushrooms (chickens, hedgehogs, hericium, chanterelles) or store bought mushrooms (cremini or baby bellas)
- 2 cloves of garlic (pressed)
- ¼ cup flour
- 4 tablespoons grass fed butter
- 4 cups stock/broth of your choice
- ½ cup of half and half
- Salt and pepper to taste
In a pot melt butter and cook mushrooms and onion until tender.
Sprinkle the flour over the mushrooms and onions to make a roux.
Add about ½ the flour and then slowly add more to make a roux that follows your spoon but isn’t a total glob of paste.
Make sure to keep stirring. Cook for at least 3 minutes to get rid of the raw flour taste.
Add the garlic
Add the stock and bring to a boil.
Turn down to simmer and add the half and half
Salt and pepper to taste
If you didn’t want Cream of Mushroom soup, you would follow the directions above and simply omit the flour and the half and half. Also, if your soup isn’t as thick as you would like it to be you could make slurry to add at the end.
SLURRY:
To make a slurry, just measure out corn starch into a small bowl (you have to use corn starch because you used flour in the roux and you can’t use flour for both) – use one tablespoon to thicken a small amount of sauce or up to four tablespoons for a big pot of soup. Add a cup or so of the hot cooking broth to the corn starch and whisk until they’re completely combined. This is your slurry.
Next, slowly pour the slurry into the main pot while whisking. This whole process prevents any lumps from forming and helps the slurry to incorporate evenly. Keep stirring the soup or sauce until it has thickened up.
