Its Friday So It Must Be Soup! Creamy Mushroom Soup

The Kid was away this week from Monday until Wednesday so that always means a mushroom orgy for the adults. Little Shack certainly has a pretty good palette, he eats a really wide variety of foods and is, in many ways, less picky that his father but the one thing we have not been able to sway him over to are mushrooms. Clearly, there is something seriously wrong with my kid because anyone who will eat fish eyes, chicken bones, bone marrow and raw quail eggs but WON'T eat mushrooms has some issues. I mean, he is a nice kid and all and we will keep him but the mushroom thing is really starting to cramp our style. This is, therefore, the perfect soup for a kid free week and the adults were very, very happy. As always, I try to lighten up the foods that we love and so I subbed in evaporated milk for the cream and I don't think it suffered at all. It's still creamy enough but it's light and mushroomy and you don't feel guilty eating a big bowl of it.
One big bright spot in our mushroomless like with my kid is that he did taste the soup after he got home and declared the flavour to be excellent but the texture of the mushrooms to be unappealing. A quick whiz in my trusty bullet and the soup was consumed so as long as I make things that can be pureed, we can start to add mushrooms back into our diet.
Oh happy day!





Creamy Mushroom Soup
adapted from this recipe by Mrs Wheelbarrow I found on Food52

4 cups chicken stock
about 200 gram slice button mushrooms
1/2 cup  minced shallots
5 or 6 sprigs of fresh thyme
1/4 cup brandy
3 tbls olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup evaporated milk
approx 700 grams mushrooms, washed (about 150 grams chanterelles and 550 grams baby bellos in my case)
fresh italian parsley for garnish

Bring the stock to a boil and add the button mushrooms. Reduce the heat, cover and barely simmer for about an hour. It's more like steeping.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a sauté pan and add the shallots and thyme and sauté until translucent. Salt and pepper.
Chop your baby bellos into a small dice and add to the shallots which are now on low heat until the liquid is released and then they dry up again. Stir often and don't let them stick or burn. Right towards the end, about five minutes before you are done, add the chanterelles if you are using them because they cook very quickly. If you choose another type of mushroom that will cook at the same rate as the baby bellos, add them all in at the same time but chanterelles are very delicate.
Remove the thyme and add the brandy.Turn the heat back up and cook until it's reduced and the mushrooms are starting to brown up a bit.

Now, strain the mushrooms from the chicken stock and discard the mushrooms. Add the shallot/mushroom  mixture to the stock, add the evaporated milk and heat gently. Garnish with some fresh italian parsley in each bowl.