Mushroom soup at Taj Hotel is just too good. I have always tried to imitate the same but couldn’t do so. This time I caught hold of a book having this soup recipe. While I was reading it, I observed the unusual variety of wild mushrooms used in this soup. You might get alot of information about Mushrooms on Wikipedia. But here is what I discovered by going to the grocery store.
Edible Mushrooms are of two types, fresh and dried. There is a variety of edible mushrooms available in the market. Mostly found are the button mushrooms which we use in everyday cooking. But there are mushrooms like Shitake, Enoki, Enokitake, Buna-Shimeji, Oyster, Bunapi-Shimeji, Morels, Porcini and Chanterelles. These variety are mostly used for Chinese and Japanese cuisine. To no surprise the biggest cultivator of these mushrooms is China.
I required Porcini, Chanterelles and Morels for this soup. Others were easy to find but these were exclusive. I went to search all over but out of all I just found one vendor which could provide me with these mushrooms. The shopkeeper told me that the demand is very less for these mushrooms. It is only the five-star hotels which pick them up. Also, to your knowledge these mushrooms specifically porcini, chanterelles and morels are super-expensive. To my amusement the price was about Rs. 18000 per Kilo (USD 360/kilo). I still bought little what was required for making this soup. It was expensive but actually worth it!!:)
Creamy Yummy Soup!
So the special ingredients used for this soup cappuccino are:
30 gm dried porcini mushrooms
30 gm dried chanterelle mushrooms
15 gm dried morel mushrooms
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, sliced
6 garlic cloves, crushed
20 gm celery, sliced
20 gm leeks, sliced
250 gm button mushrooms
1 tsp peppercorns
2 sprigs thyme
100 ml white wine
2 tsp butter
salt to taste
Method:
- Soak the dried mushrooms in 2 L (3.5 pt) warm water for an hour.
- Heat olive oil in a thick-bottomed stock pot, saute onion and garlic for a minute.
- Add celery, leeks, button mushrooms, peppercorns and thyme and saute for 2 minutes.
- Add white wine.
- Add mushrooms and soaking water and bring it to boil.
- Simmer for 45 minutes, skimming the froth from the surface. Cool.
- Blend using a stick blender and strain through a fine chinois.
- Return the soup to the fire and add butter and seasoning.
- Serve hot in cappucino cups. Drink Hot!
This looks and sounds elegant. Mushroom soup is a real treat. Thanks for sharing this recipe and the mushroom info. Have a wonderful day. Buzzed ya.
mushroom soup sound really yummy,i just love all ingredients in it 🙂
What a great idea! This looks delicious!
I love mushrooms…and with all the varieties of mushrooms in that soup, I’m sure it’s so tasty!
Wow it is winter here so this soup looks so comforting. I am definitely going to try this soon.
Oh my, that looks delicious. I adore mushroom soup and with the use of these exotic varieties, I’m sure it is wonderful.
This sounds amazing! I love mushrooms and mushroom soup, and the dried kinds sound like they’d give a great flavor 🙂 Wonderful!
Kiri,
These dried mushrooms tastes just too good in this soup!! A must have!
I am alien to all those mushrooms you have mentioned because over here, we get mostly the local ones and from the Asian countries. A new discovery but sure a wonderful treat for the cold and rainy weather we have been having for the last couple of days.
Nava,
Even I thought only button mushrooms existed which are readily available but when I went to the grocery store I discovered that dried ones were used readily too!
Your soup had to be so delicious. It is almost impossible to find the mushrooms you used other than dried where I live. When we were in Europe they were in all the markets this past fall. I had wonderful mushroom soup in Italy and in Germany and they were both so good.
Karen,
I am sooo fond of mushroom soup that I really wanted to find a real recipe which we have in restaurants. My search ended when I got this recipe!
I love the earthiness of mushrooms — it lends perfectly in soups 🙂
Kiran!
You would love the taste of Mushrooms in this soup!!
I love this recipe! Real mushroom soup! I gave you a Liebster Blog Award! Email me for details 🙂
Ruth!
You would love this one! Thanks for nominating for the award. Mail me the details soon!! I am so excited 🙂
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