Forest Mushroom Soup with Creme Fraiche

A rich and creamy soup, full of autumn flavours.

Ingredients

1 large Onion finely diced
½ cup of fresh Cream
1 litre of Chicken (or Vegetable) stock
350g of chopped Button Mushrooms
100g of Chestnut Mushrooms
½ cup of dried Porcini Mushrooms
10g of Butter
Salt and Pepper to taste
30ml Brandy
1 tbsp of finely chopped Parsley
50g of Crème Fraiche

Directions

Rehydrate the dried Porcini mushrooms with boiling water. It will usually take about ½ hour to rehydrate the dried mushrooms. Once the mushrooms have been rehydrated, squeeze them and slice them finely. Do not throw the liquid away, use it in the soup.

In a saucepan slowly cook the Onion and Button mushrooms in butter until they are tender. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute.

Add the Porcini mushrooms, the chopped Parsley and the Brandy; cook for another minute.

Pour in the mushroom liquid from the rehydration process and stock, then gently bring back to the boil.

Next, remove the soup from the heat and blend it until it has a smooth consistency. At this point you should now season to taste.

Return the soup to very low heat and add the whole Chestnut mushrooms. Simmer slowly until the mushrooms are tender.

While the soup is simmering, melt a little butter in a pan and cook the remaining Chestnut Mushrooms until they soften.

To Serve: Pour the soup in a bowl with a dollop of crème fraiche and place a few chestnut mushrooms softened in butter on top.

Tip: At step four while you can use an ordinary blender, a hand held blender is a option. Using a hand held blender makes the job a lot easier because you do not need to remove the soup from its pan while you blend it.