Heston Blumenthal’s Mushroom Soup

Before I tried this soup, mushroom soups to me were always pureed soups. I don’t recall seeing mushroom soup anywhere in the form of soup, that is, in a more liquid state, not ground in a blender. And if I have, they were probably unremarkable, since I don’t remember it.

Mushroom soups always have one big disadvantage: the mushrooms. They soak up and give their flavor to the broth, but they themselves remain practically tasteless. You end up eating a soup that’s kind of good, but you’re haunted by a watery feeling. The good news is that you won’t feel that way in this recipe. The bad news is that you can say goodbye to mushroom soups. The recipe is a bit fiddly (the least) and takes a while to prepare, and you probably won’t eat other mushroom soups after this soup.

After the soup is ready, it is beaten with a blender and passed through a sieve. The watery and tasteless mushrooms are separated, as well as the rest of the vegetables that have given up their flavor, and only the rich and fragrant broth remains. Then the broth is whipped with a blender again until it forms an airy foam. This little serving trick greatly affects the taste and feel of the dish, do not neglect.

Another trick of this soup is the mushroom powder, which is sprinkled on the soup just before serving. It makes the flavor of the soup more mushroomy, infuses the umami flavor, and also looks spectacular.

We make it by grinding dried porcini and shiitake mushrooms into a powder. Store the powder in a tightly closed container for up to 5 months and use as a condiment in other dishes: wherever you want to add umami flavor or, in more simple words, wherever you want to enhance flavor and aroma. Heston recommends using this mushroom sprinkle with pasta, pizza, risotto, in sauces, steaks and omelets.

Recipe from Heston Blumenthal At Home.

Ingredients

For mushroom powder:

• 10 g (0,4 cups) dried shiitake mushrooms
• 10 g (0,4 cups) dried porcini mushrooms

For soup:

• 1.5 liters of Heston Blumenthal vegetable broth
• 160g (5,6 oz) unsalted butter
• 2 onions
• 1 small potato
• 2 stalks of leeks (only the white part, I used 1 large one)
• 800 g (1.8 lb) champignons mushrooms
• 50 g (1.8 oz) dry white vermouth
• 80 g (2,8 oz) cream (30%+ fat)
• 40 g (1.4 oz) milk (low fat, 1-2%)
• Salt and black pepper

Step by Step Directions

Preheat the oven to 150°C / 300°F, place 10 g (0,4 cups) shiitake and 10 g (0,4 cups) porcini mushrooms on a baking tray and roast for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool.

In the meantime, thinly slice 800 grams (1,8 lb) of champignon mushrooms, set aside.

Peel and thinly slice 2 onions and 1 potato. Cut the white part of the leeks in half and rinse thoroughly under running water, thinly slice. Set the potatoes and onions aside separately, and send the leeks to the mushrooms.

By this time the mushrooms have cooled. Grind them with a blender, food processor or coffee grinder, and then sift through a fine sieve. Store in a tightly closed container.

In a wide saucepan, melt 160g (5,6 oz) of butter, add the onions and potatoes and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes. They should simmer, not fry. Stir once a minute.

Add the leeks and mushrooms and cook for about 15 minutes more, also stirring about once a minute.

In the meantime, heat 1.5 liters of vegetable broth on the adjacent burner.

(There are no mushrooms in the photo, because I forgot to add them at this stage. I realized that something was missing at the moment when I poured the broth. So I just stewed them in a pan for 10 minutes, added them to the broth and continued cooking)

Increase the heat to high and pour in 50 ml (1,8 oz) of dry vermouth, evaporate almost all the liquid, stirring often. (1 to 2 minutes). Pour in 1.5 liters of vegetable stock, add 80 g (2,8 oz) of cream and 40 g (1,4 oz) of milk, bring to a boil and reduce heat to minimum. Cook for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and puree until completely homogeneous. That was a quote from the book.

I do not know, perhaps to complete homogeneity soup would be able to puree with a stationary blender, but with an immersion blender I could not. I do not think that “complete homogeneity” is super critical, because we are still going to strain the soup through a sieve.

Strain the soup through a frequent sieve, discard the cake.

Add salt and black pepper, taste, if necessary, add more salt.

A regular sieve is not good enough for straining large quantities of food. It holds a small volume and tends to pour out something over the edge, the process is very delayed. Ideally use a conical sieve for such needs. If you often cook and grind sauces, puree soups, etc. – think about purchasing one. I have given it some thought.

Whisk the soup with a blender until lightly foamy. Pour onto plates and serve.

Be sure to sprinkle each serving with mushroom powder before eating.