Exquisite Niche

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:

1. Soak the dried mushrooms in 2 L (3.5 pt) warm water for an hour.
2. Heat olive oil in a thick-bottomed stock pot, saute onion and garlic for a minute.
3. Add celery, leeks, button mushrooms, peppercorns and thyme and saute for 2 minutes.
4. Add white wine.
5. Add mushrooms and soaking water and bring it to boil.
6. Simmer for 45 minutes, skimming the froth from the surface. Cool.
7. Blend using a stick blender and strain through a fine chinois.
8. Return the soup to the fire and add butter and seasoning.
9. Serve hot in cappucino cups. Drink Hot!

Tags: chanterelles, morel, mushroom, porcini, soup