Cream of Portobello Mushroom Soup

Ingredients
(Serves 4 – 6)
- 25g butter
- 3/4 large white/yellow onion, chopped finely
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 850ml vegetable/chicken/mushroom stock (see cooking note 1)
- 650g portobello mushrooms, chopped to large chunks
- 5 fresh sage leaves, chopped finely
- 100ml white wine
- 100ml double cream/thickened cream (see cooking note 2)
- sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
- chopped fresh parsley (for garnishing)
 

Directions
1. Melt butter in large and deep saucepan. And the onions and garlic, and cook over gentle flame till the onions have just started to caramelised (soft, translucent, shrunken). This takes about 4 minutes.
2. Stir in the flour and cook for one minute more, then gradually stir in the stock.
3. Add the mushrooms and bring to the boil. Don’t worry if it seems like a lot of mushrooms, they will shrink considerably when they are cooked.
4. Reduce heat, cover and simmer gently for about 15 minutes, until the mushrooms are tender. Stir in the sage.
5. Remove a couple of ladlefuls of the mushrooms, chop them to small pieces and set aside.
6. Process the remaining soup in a food processor or blender until smooth.
7. Return the soup to the saucepan and stir in the wine & cream and season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Warm through, without boiling. Ladle into bowls and garnish with chopped mushrooms you reserved in step 5, parsley and a few drops (or swirls) of cream. Serve with toast.

Cooking Notes:
1) I used “Woh Hup” brand of “Concentrated Mushroom Stock” for the stock base by dissolving 1 tsp of stock for every 200ml of water. This stock works really well for this soup and is very convenient.
2) The original recipe calls for double cream, which is something common in UK. However, double cream is quite rare in Singapore (so far, only seen it at Cold Storage Centrepoint) and pretty expensive. I substituted this with thickened cream containing 35% milk fat and it does the job well and is so much cheaper and easier to find at our local supermarkets.
3) Ingredients substitution: You can substitute portobello mushrooms with wild mushrooms. You can also substitute the sage with fresh thyme (1 tsp).


http://www.noobcook.com/cream-of-portobello-mushroom-soup/