If you are looking for a special occasion soup that your guest will never forget, this is it!
Let’s face it, mushroom soup is not pretty, but it is complex and somehow speaks to our primordial past as forest foragers. The taste memory provokes a knowing within of something familiar. Somehow. Earthy, soulful, and primal. I brought a beautiful bag of dried Porcini back with me my last trip to Firenze. I paid thirty Euros for 250 grams. It was a big bag and the quality of the porcini is first rate. But, until shopping in Kotor this summer, I had not realized that dried Porcini mushrooms are over 100 Euros a kilo. Ouch.
Fortunately, they are very flavourful and go a long way. Even more fortunately, Mo=Na’s Foods in Edmonton supplies a bag of Dried Alberta Mushrooms that I have since discovered are incredibly flavourful and beautiful in this soup for a fraction of the price.
Home from Tuscany with these gorgeous dried Porcini mushrooms, beautifully preserved vacuum packed chestnuts (available now in the city at The Italian Centre Shop) and a lovely jeweled bottle of while Truffle Oil, I hunkered down to recreate a taste of Tuscany as is customary when I return home from such life altering travel. This soup was born!
Do not let me underestimate the flavour and texture of this soup. It i is the best soup I have ever made, and I make some dynamite soups. This soup is unforgettable and now served in our home for that special someone at that special meal.
The chestnuts bring a toothsome texture and body to this soup that is unexpected, pleasing and enigmatic.
Yes, this is Sundog Organic Farm’s garlic again. Undeniably the best garlic at our local market.
Scale the dried Pordini mushrooms in the TM bowl before rehydrating them. Get all ingredients prepped. I needn’t have minced the garlic and onion as I did. Chopping roughly is fine for the thermomix. And, if you do not have a Thermomix, well, you know what to do and detailed instructions follow.
Scale in the oil, onion, garlic, and sauté. After scraping down the bowl, add the chopped Cremini mushrooms, and sauté.
Squeeze the rehydrating liquid from the Porcini mushrooms, mince, and add to the sautéd musrooms; seive the rehydrating water back into the soup… so much deep, dark flavour there!
Subtract the amount of rehydrating liquid from the 700g of chicken broth, and add the remaining amount; cook the soup for ten minutes.
Purée the soup, add the cream, mix to combine, and that is it!
Pour into bowls, drizzle sparingly with white truffle oil, and serve immediately with homemade herbed crackers.
The beauty of this soup is that it is, ultimately, simple: simple ingredients and straightforward soup making process. The use of the Thermomix makes is incredibly easy, but without one, it is not difficult to make. I have done some urban foraging and discovered, as noted in the recipe, that variations of all ingredients can be purchased locally and making this soup with local Alberta dried and fresh mushrooms is a very gratifying endeavour. I have not yet found a local ingredient that can substitute for the chestnuts.
Let me know if you do!
Porcini Chestnut Soup with White Truffle Oil
This is a sumptuous, umami laden soup perfect in the fall with fresh Chestnuts, or with vacuum packed ones through the winter. The recipe is also designed for the Thermomix machine.
Servings: 6 -8
Ingredients
- 10 g dried Porcini (or local dried Alberta Mushrooms from Mo-Na's Foods)
- 1/2 cup boiling water for hydrating dried Porcini
- 30 g extra virgin olive oil (my favourite local oil remains the President's Choice Brand from Superstore)
- 1 onion , chopped roughly
- 2 plump garlic cloves
- 500 g whole Cremini mushrooms , chopped
- 200 g vacuum packed chestnuts , chopped (available locally at The Italian Centre)
- 700 g cooking liquid (homemade chicken stock plus Porcini rehydrating liquid)
- 100 g heavy cream
- salt and pepper to taste
- white truffle oil for garnish (available locally at The Italian Centre)
Instructions
Instructions with the Thermomix:
- Scale 10g of Porcini mushrooms, soak them in 1/2 cup of boiling water for 10 minutes, and retain liquid
- Scale in the olive oil and add the onion and garlic; chop for 5 seconds at speed 7
- Clean sides of bowl with the spatula; sauté for 2 minutes at 100°C on speed 5
- Scale in chopped Cremini and sauté for 2 minutes at 100°C on R-4
- Scale in chestnuts, reconstituted minced Porcini, strained Porcini water and chicken stock to total 700g liquid; cook for 10 minutes on Varoma at speed R-4
- Purée for one minute slowly from 1-10, until smooth
- Add cream, adjust seasoning and serve with a drizzle of truffle oil (2-3 drops per boil, as it is very strong)
Instructions without the Thermomix:
- Weigh 10g of Porcini mushrooms, soak them in 1/2 cup of boiling water for 10 minutes, and retain liquid
- Measure 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a stock pan and heat; add the chopped onion and garlic
- Sauté for 2 minutes, stirring constantly; add the chopped Cremini and sauté for 2 minutes more minutes on high heat
- Add chopped chestnuts, reconstituted minced Porcini, strained Porcini water and enough chicken stock to total 700g liquid; bring to a low boil and cook for 10 minutes
- Test for doneness, then carefully move mixture to a blender: secure lid with a cloth over the top to avoid heat explosions or burns
- Purée for one minute slowly, or until velvety smooth
- Add cream, adjust seasoning and serve with a drizzle of truffle oil (2-3 drops per boil, as it is very strong)
Notes
Truffle Oils are always essences: the oil is flavoured artificially. Small Italian Artisan producers do infuse their own oil, but it is not available for export and tastes very different than the ones we pay so dearly for in Italy and at home.
OH MY WORD VALERIE !!! Your soup is OUTSTANDING. I am salivating all over the keyboard here. This is fantastic. BRAVO. I want some! You are so smart to have brought back Porcini mushrooms from Firenze. I am so very envious. Great photos. Thank you so much for this post!
Oh my goodness Valerie, thanks for sharing this with the contest, or I might not have found it. I adore mushroom soup, even though it isn’t very pretty. Your recipe sounds awesome!
This is a truly outstanding looking soup. I can just smell and taste it as you describe it. I wish I had some truffle oil, but its not in our budget at the moment, so I am just going to have to come up with something else 🙂 Thanks for sharing Valerie.
Hey, Michelle!
I do not understand why truffle oil is so expensive when it is just an artificial essence. Talk about making the most of the market! I got a nice sized bottle – or artisan infused oil – the real deal, in Italy this fall. Still have to do a comparative taste test. It was 10 Euro, which was cheap considering it was 3 times the size of the one I bought the year before that was fake and 20 Euro. The bottles at the Italian Centre Shop are very reasonably priced considering their size – too big, really. Enough oil in them for a life time. A tiny bottle would last a year or more and comfortably cost ten Canadian if anyone would do that for us! The soup is grand without the finishing oil – but, it is definitely the cream on the strawberry shortcake… essential to the overall impact.
🙂
V
Would love to make this could you use chestnut puree instead of chopped chestnuts thanks
Yasmin,
I would check out your neighbourhood Italian grocer for the vacuum packed chestnuts. The puree is markedly different.
🙂
Valerie