Mushroom soup? You’ve got to be thinking how in the hell am I supposed to make mushroom soup on the go, in the middle of nowhere, without a blender and to top it off, it justs sounds annoying. At first glance you’d be right. This is a French recipe and does require a good bit of prep with a lot of time in between directions but I can promise you that there will be NO left overs. This isn’t that gelatinously thick mushroom pudding Campbell’s soup, canned crap pulled from a grocery shelf, heated up and served with whatever you serve prefabricated excrement with, but the real deal. The GOD I LOVE MUSHROOMS, heart warming grand-ma-ma goodness.
There are two ways of doing this. I call them the overnight/day trip way and the I’m stuck in the Mojave desert with all my supplies way. You can make it at home the night before and warm it using your propane stove, MSR multi fuel stove, or one of those super nifty alcohol stoves made from a tin can and towel. Or, if you are super serious or a little nutty like us, you can take a small food processor and plug it into your rig. Either way, this is what you are going to need make the soup.
-A large soup pot or a dutch oven will work too. Ceramic lined dutch ovens will be easier but just cast iron will also do the trick.
-A spoon to stir everything
-A food processor or blender
-1/4 cup unsalted butter (that’s a whole stick and don’t use that wanna be butter margarine)
-2lbs mushrooms quartered (4 containers. I have found that baby bellas or creminis are the best. The white button caps are bland and don’t cook as well. Shitake, oysters, hen of the forest can be used but makes the price go up significantly.)
-1 sweet yellow onion
-2 cloves of garlic, crushed
-6 sprigs of thyme
-pinch of salt
-1 1/2 tablespoons of flour
-1 cup of water
-4 cups chicken broth(one of those boxes)
-1 cup heavy cream
-black pepper to taste
Start by melting the butter in the pot/dutch oven over low heat. Once melted, throw in those quartered mushrooms. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Stir to get everything coated. Cook the mushrooms until they give up their juice and then reduce down by half. While that’s going on, cut up the onion into thumbnail size pieces. Once the mushrooms have reduced down, throw in the onions, garlic and thyme. You can do one of two things with the thyme, pull the leaves off by hand or let the leaves cook off and pick the stems out later.
Let the onions cook until clear. Dust everything with the flour and cook for another two minutes. This will let the flour taste cook off. Pour in the water and chicken stock. Bring it up to medium heat and cook for 1 hour at a very low boil or heavy simmer. Take the time to read a book. Might I recommend Jack Donovan’s, “The way of man” and 2 fingers of Woodford Reserve, no ice, don’t you dare put ice in it.
Once it has reduced down, make sure you have gotten all the thyme stems out. Pour the mixture into the blender or food processor. Blend until smooth and creamy. Pour the pureed mixture back into the pot and add the cream. Sprinkle on some pepper to taste, heat it up and boom! You’ve got some delicious soup.
Ok, ok, I know what your thinking. It’s basically mushrooms and cream, not enough to fill a hungry Viking out exploring the back country of the world. Well Emeril, get to it and dress this thing up. Slice a loaf of fresh french bread open, melt some butter over it and grill it on the camp fire. The best thing to go with this is a good steak. The Mushroom is most closely compared to beef and a great T-bone rubbed in olive oil, salt, and pepper then grilled at a very high temp to char the outside and leave the inside nice and tender would go great with this soup. If you are in the part of the country where mesquite wood is available, use this wood to make your coals and grill your steak over it. I promise you one thing, you will not be displeased with the smokey mesquite taste.
Give us some feedback on how you liked this recipe. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
*Photo courtesy of the interweb
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