Mushroom Soup

This recipe is by Gordon Ramsay as it appeared in last months Delicious magazine. It is supposed to be made with Madeira which I didn’t have handy so substituted sherry as suggested as well as a couple of other little tweaks. I like the fact that as well as the mushies it contains lots of other veggies so nice & healthy. It turned out to be quite thick & tasty, another great winter warmer even though its not very pretty to look at.

Wild Mushroom Soup

1 litre chicken stock
½ cup medium dry sherry
50g unsalted butter
3 leeks (white part only), finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
1 carrot, peeled & chopped
1 tspn crushed coriander seeds
Leaves of 4 thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
500g mixed wild mushrooms, roughly chopped
100ml crème fraiche
Truffle oil, to drizzle

Combine the stock & sherry in a saucepan and boil until mixture is reduced by one quarter or until you have 800ml. Set aside until needed.

Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan over low heat. Cook the leek, onion, celery & carrot for 6-8 minutes until the onion is translucent & vegetables are soft. Add the reduced stock, coriander, thyme & bay leaf & simmer for 10 minutes. Add mushrooms & cook for 3-4 minutes until just soft.

Remove the pan from the heat, discard the bay leaf, then puree with a hand held blender. Top with crème fraiche & drizzle with truffle oil to serve.