Mushroom soup! And I’m not talking about that shitty Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup that tastes like flour and water mixed together with one rotten mushroom thrown in. This is mushroom-action packed!

When Matt and I were in Brussels, we lunched at La Roue d’Or, an uber-Belgian Restaurant where well-t0-do business men like to eat. It was not a vegetarian friendly place: they served pig trotters, lamb’s tongue, rabbit and bone marrow. We got the prix fixe lunch that included cream of mushroom soup and boullaibase - it was the best cream of mushroom soup I had ever eaten. This is a pretty good copy of it, but with less cream.

Makes four lunch servings.
Cooking time: ??? (Hey, it’s Saturday, I don’t keep track of time.)

• 10 oz. button or crimini mushrooms, sliced
• 8 oz. shitaki mushrooms, de-stemmed and sliced
• few tablespoons of the fat of your choice (olive oil, veg oil, canola oil, etc.)
• three garlic cloves, sliced
• one large shallot, sliced
• one tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves
• few glugs of dry white wine
• about three cups of stock (you can sub veg or chick stock, but if you REALLY like mushrooms, then use mushroom stock)
• few splashes of heavy cream (optional, I really don’t think it needs it)
• chopped chives (optional)
• if you have it, a small splash of Madeira wine

We’re gonna make duxelle. Heat a heavy, medium sized pot over medium heat. Add your fat. Once your fat gets nice and hot, add your shallots and cook down for a couple of minutes. Add garlic and cook down for another few minutes. Add thyme and mushrooms, salt and pepper. You may need to add more fat. Cook all the way down. I mean all the way - until it’s a nice earthy dark brown, like a healthy poo. Add white wine to deglaze the bottom and cook out the alcohol. Set aside to cool. Once cool, chuck the contents of the pan into a food processor and whiz until desired consistency.

Voila! You have duxelle, which is pretty damn tasty and versatile: Add to risottos, make ravioli or perogi, stuff into meats, use as the “stuff” in stuffed mushrooms, mix with quinoa, serve as is as a side dish, thin it out with stock for a sauce.

Back to the soup! Add the duxelle to a pot and gradually add mushroom stock to thin it out to the consistency you like. Add that Madeira to taste. If you want it smooth, put in a blender of use an immersion blender. If you want it super silky, you will have to put it through a chinois. Heat over medium heat until nice and warm. Check for salt and pepper. Pour into bowls. If you like, add a bit of the heavy cream and sprinkle with chives. Serve with a nice crusty bread. Eat.

Also, I’ve been doing this miserly thing that minimizes food waste: If you’ve ever watched 30 Minute Meals, you know that Rachael Ray likes to gush over her self-proclaimed genius idea of a garbage bowl: As in, a medium sized bowl that she keeps near her as she preps to throw out her food garbage so she doesn’t clutter up her cutting board and have to keep running over to the garbage can. Well, I’ve picked up the habit of using a stock container. I keep an empty container near me while I prep and put my usable food scraps in it, like shitaki stems, thyme stems, carrots peels, etc. Then I freeze it and have plenty of stuff when I go to make my own veg and chicken stock. A little tip from Jacques Pepin to cheap people like me.