Heston's cream of mushroom soup

Heston Blumenthal is a genius. I saw all his cooking tv shows. I also kept a few of his recipes for Waitrose.

I decided to try his cream of mushroom soup.

He commands cup mushrooms. I don't particularly like them. I prefer to cook with portobello or brown mushrooms. They are more meaty and have more flavour.

So the first time I made this recipe I used portobello mushrooms. The soup was tasty but because the flavour was so intense, the mushroom powder lost it's punch.

Again I made the recipe this time using cup mushrooms. Heston was right! Flavour is more subtle so the mushroom powder is more intense and completes the dish beautifully.

However, there is something I will not agree with Heston. Passing the soup through a sieve to end up with only mushroom broth and wasting all the mushroom meat is more than I can handle. I do not run a Michelin starred restaurant, I run a home. I will not through away good food!

Serves: 10 persons.

Ingredients:

• For the mushroom powder:
• 10g dried Porcini mushrooms
• 10g dried Chinese mushrooms (if you can't find these, use another type of dried mushrooms)
• For the soup:
• 800g cup mushrooms, sliced
• 2 medium onions, finely sliced
• 1 small potato, peeled and finely sliced
• 2 leeks (400g), finely sliced
• 1.5 liters vegetable stock
• 150g butter
• 50ml vermouth (I used Martini Rosso)
• 80ml double cream
• 40ml milk
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Make the mushroom powder:
1. Roast the dried mushrooms at 150°C on a baking tray for 5 min, then leave it to cool.
   
2. Put the mushrooms in a sealable freezer bag and crush thoroughly with a rolling pin or blitz them. I did both!
   
   
   
   
3. Keep in an airtight container until ready to use. It will keep for up to 5 months.
   
2. Melt the butter and sweat the onions and potato without letting them colour. It's a lot of butter! This is not a healthy soup...
   
3. Add the leeks and mushrooms and cook until they begin to soften. At this stage I was doubting that this recipe was only for 4 persons as Heston mentioned. How could it be when the mushrooms filled up my biggest pan?
   
4. Turn the heat up to high and add the vermouth to the mushroom mixture. Allow to reduce until almost all of the vermouth has evaporated. The mushrooms shrinked quite a lot!
   
5. Pour the vegetable stock into the pan and add the double cream. Bring to a boil and cook for a further 10 min. 
   
6. Remove from the heat and blitz until smooth.
   
7. Pass through a fine sieve. This is the part I refused to do! And I finally understood why it would only feed 4 persons...
8. Stir in the milk and salt and pepper to taste.
9. Sprinkle each bowl with a little of the mushroom powder before serving.