Roasted Wild Mushroom Soup

Finally working my way towards the weekend again and realizing I have next to nothing to write in terms of my school day.  I suppose I should mention that this weekend I am going to go at it again and try the Daring Baker's Challenge a second time, just with gluten flour instead of gluten-free, which I am sure with be a huge improvement. 

Anyways, today I made a recipe from this morning's newspaper.  A recipe that is adapted from the book, "Notes from a Maine Kitchen" by Kathy Gunst.  The recipe worked out very well even though all we had were baby bella mushrooms, which don't have much taste and a lot of water.  I think it helped a little that I increased the roasting time to 30 minutes, as that seemed to take care of excess water and bring on the characteristic fond.  I think that I am going to make the recipe again tomorrow with different mushrooms.  Maybe shiitake?  If we can't find other mushrooms I will see if adding some tomato paste might help to boost the taste through carmelization.  Who knows, we'll see how that works out tomorrow.

Oh, and on a different note entirely, the cat below is a cat who has taken to visiting our house every day for over a month now.  He actually belongs to our neighbors, but they have multiple cats, so we believe he comes over for attention.  The neighbors refer to him as Moose, though I probably wouldn't have chosen that name...

The last thing I would like to note would be my thankfulness to a friend who gave us some beautiful, fresh thyme and rosemary from her garden.  It was wonderful to be able to use it in the soup and gave the dish a nice, clear flavor.  I would like to note that I decreased the amount of liquid in the soup from 5 cups to 4 cups, and used 1/4 pound more mushrooms than stated in the recipe.  This was because I felt that there would be too little mushroom flavor if I used bland mushrooms with such a large quantity of water.  Lastly, when I processed the soup, I didn't fully blend it at I wanted it to retain some textural conrast.  That of course, is your own choice.  The recipe is below:

Roasted Wild Mushroom Soup
Adapted by the Bangor Daily News from "Notes from a Maine Kitchen" by Kathy Gunst

1 pound fresh portabella, shiitake, Cepe or any wild mushroom you can find
2 teaspoons olive oil
3 medium onions, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons dry sherry or red wine
5 cups vegetable, chicken, or beef stock
A touch of heavy cream, creme fraiche or yogurt, optional

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Gently clean mushrooms using a moist paper towel.  Cut the bottom half inch off the stems and then cut the mushrooms into chunks.  Grease the bottom of a medium to large roasting pan or oven-proof skillet with 1 teaspoon of the oil.  Add the mushrooms, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary and remaining oil and stir well.

Roast on the middle oven shelf for 20-25 minutes, stirring once or twice, or until the vegetables are tender.  remove the roasting pan from the oven and pour the sherry or wine into the pan, scraping up any bits clinging to the bottom.  Add the stock.  Let cool a minute or two.

Transfer the soup to a blender or food processor and, working in small batches, puree the mushroom mixture and all the juices.  Blend until smooth,

Transfer to medium-large pot and season to taste.  Reheat and add a touch of cream, creme fraiche or plain yogurt.  Serve hot with crusty bread.