mushroom soup:
This is a very loose adaptation of Isabel Allende's "recipe for soup of reconciliation"
Buy a bunch of dried porccini shrooms and other tasty dried types, rinse them thoroughly then soak them in a combination of warm chamomile tea, coarsely cracked pepper, salt and a bay leaf or two. Soak for 15 mins, or until they reconstitute. Soak for too long and they will get soggy and or rubbery. Save your rubber textures for other things.
Slice 2 yellow onions, mince 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, brown in a skillet in olive oil. Remove most the onions & garlic from the pan and let sit. The mushrooms will be sauteed in there shortly.
Mince some thyme, a tiny bit of lavender, crack some more pepper, grind a little nutmeg, all these will go into the soup in the last 10 minutes of cooking.
Lightly strain the mushrooms, and please keep the liquid they were soaking in, it could become nectar.
Saute the mushrooms with some of the onions and garlic. Towards the end when the mushrooms have soaked up some of the flavor add some of the liquid they were soaking in as well as a little bit of wine or a dash of light vinegar if you don't like alcohol. If you're serving wine with dinner, a table spoon into them pan ought to do it, this will deglaze the pan and enhance the flavors. Let all contents of skillet sit.
You can use a stock pot for the next step but I think its overkill, I use a 2qt pot. Simmer 1 pint of chicken broth in a pot and slowly add the rest of liquid and spices the shrooms were soaking in, add the mushrooms and onions and garlic. simmer for 20 minutes or until the soup tastes complete to your unique taste buds.
Pull out the prettiest mushrooms and onions, set them aside so they can be used for presentation. Pull out the bay leaf and toss it.
Spice time: the pepper goes in first, the lavender 2nd wait five minutes, add some truffle oil, just a little.
Use an inverted blender to puree the mushrooms, onions and garlic. It may splash back a little so make sure the pan you used is deep enough. Wearing soup is less glamorous than you think and ends up in the most surprising places. Putting a dash of truffle behind your ears and knees on the other hand, that is a nice surprise.
Final spice time: the thyme and nutmeg last, be generous with the thyme and careful with the nutmeg. The only person that needs to know about the nutmeg is you, it adds just a little lift to the soup.
Serve immediately if you can so that the blended stuff does not separate, otherwise whisk before serving.
Pour soup into bowls, garnish with onion & mushroom and sprig of lavender, turn of pepper and a lovely truffle oil doodle.
Some people use cream to thicken the soup, if you feel like you want a thicker soup and are wanting to avoid dairy then just add a couple spoonfuls of mashed potato. I think the soup is fine without cream. Dairy is such a 'farty' additive and as such can truly reduce any seduction momentum you may have gathered in both the making, presenting and eating of the soup, unless you're familiar enough with each other, or if you just have a very earthy sense of humor. In which case, drink your dairy and fart and flirt away...
(C) Francesca Prada 2007, rev 2012