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Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Some people spend their money on gadgets, rare wines, drugs or Craftsman tools. I spend mine on mushrooms.
And after eating an orgasmic mushroom soup I made with some chanterelles last weekend, I feel entirely justified in my choice. Who needs a cordless drill or a ’57 Dom Perignon when you have this soup?
I’ve recently acquired a mushroom “dealer,” Joseph Daugherty of Oregon, who sells me wild mushrooms at prices well below what I would spend at the Davis Farmer’s market. My first shipment was spring porcini, this latest was golden chanterelles.
I feel certain my friends Lang and Heather and tsk! tsk!-ing me right now. “Oh, Hank. You know you can forage for these beauties yourself, right?” Yes, I do. But I would have to drive at least 400 miles north looking for a stretch of forest that already has had some rain. We won’t get our own rain here in California until the end of September — at the earliest.
And damnit, I want my chanterelles now! I’ve said before that if I were forced to go vegetarian, I could survive by eating mushrooms. Golden chanterelles are the most common variety of chanterelle here in the Pacific, and those in the Pacific Northwest can start getting them in July. Here they don’t really pop until October, although you can go up to Humboldt and dodge the pot farmers for them in September.
Golden chanterelles are far less meaty and are more delicate than porcini, or really most any other common edible mushroom. Chanterelles taste floral and smell fruity, although I could not quite pick up the apricot notes many say golden chanterelles possess. To me, chanterelles are less of a beef-venison-duck mushroom than a wild boar-pheasant-fish mushroom. Think white wine instead of red.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
I have never heard of anyone eating chanterelles raw, and several sources say raw chanterelles can make you sick. So I would not repeat my delicious raw spring porcini salad. No matter. These ‘shrooms cry out for the saute pan. So the first night my five-pound shipment arrived, I made a simple pasta with them: orecchiette pasta, parsley, thyme, chanterelles, garlic, homemade lardo cut into batons, a little lemon juice and lots of butter.
Oh yes, butter. I admit to being re-acquainted with butter because of the movie “Julie and Julia,” but it also happens that mushrooms in general — and golden chanterelles in specific — enjoy a bath in butter far more than they do a dip in any other sort of fat or oil. I defy you to not swoon when you smell chanterelles, garlic and homemade lardo sizzling in a pan of hot butter. I sure did.
After that first night’s chanterelle orgy — Holly and I ate nearly a pound of fresh chanterelles in that meal — I dried at least another pound in that blast furnace we call a garage. Chanterelles dry very easily, and since we’ve been having hot weather (it was 108 degrees on our front porch the other day!) the mushrooms were ready in 36 hours. I now have two quart jars of dried chanterelles that have a date with some grouse this fall. More on that later.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Next up was a fish dish. The light, slightly floral and spicy flavor of chanterelles works well with light fish such as halibut, and I still had some after the big fishing trip I went on with my Dad and brother earlier this summer. This time I lightened things up even further by adding grated ginger and lemon zest into the mushrooms, shallots and butter.
To finish, I dry-seared some especially pretty chanterelles and put them on top of the fish. Dry searing is one of my favorite ways to cook mushrooms: Hot pan, add mushrooms. Don’t crowd, stir often. Watch them brown and release their water. Chanterelles are pretty dry to begin with, so you will need to watch them closely, as they finish in half the time it takes to sear off button mushrooms or porcini.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
How was it? I overcooked the halibut a touch, but the sauce was lovely: Sharp, aromatic — you can really smell the chanterelles when they mix with lemon juice — and light enough to make the chanterelles the bass note in the dish. (Here is the recipe.)
I know, I know: You’re thinking, “What about that soup you were mooning over earlier?” Well, I decided — in an ode not to Julia Child but to the grand master of classic French cooking, Auguste Escoffier – to make a cream of mushroom soup.
And this ain’t your mama’s cream of mushroom soup, folks. No packets here, no cans, either. This is the real deal. Remember how the evil chef in “Ratatouille” rolled his eyes back in his head when he tasted Remy’s soup? This is that kind of soup. And this is about as classic French as it gets. I present to you, dear readers, the Sexiest Soup in the World: Escoffier’s Cream of Chanterelle Soup.
Holy sweet Jesus on the cross was this good! The flavor hammers you with chanterelle’s beguiling flavor, backed with a whiff of saffron, the creamy mouthfeel of a classic veloute (stock whisked with a blond roux), and a slightly slutty wink from the dash of Armagnac I put in, all given added heft from a liaison of cream and egg yolks. Folks, this is what you want to eat right before a romp with Bella – fleas be damned.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Veloute, you say? Liaison? If you’ve dusted off your Mastering The Art of French Cooking
Veloute (vel-oo-TAY), is easy. It’s a mixture of hot stock and a roux made from equal parts flour and butter. You must whisk in the stock to get the mixture to set correctly, which, when it does, makes a broth that looks like liquid satin.
Liaison is a bit harder, but only a bit. It is an ancient method of thickening a soup, by adding a mixture of beaten egg yolks and cream (the Greeks make avgolemono by adding a mixture of egg yolks and lemon). The trick is to temper your eggs so they do not scramble, then never letting the soup boil after the liaison is added.
The result? Sex in a bowl.
________________
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
ESCOFFIER’S CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP
This is my adaptation of Auguste Escoffier’s Veloute Agnes Sorel, from his classic Guide Culinaire, available as Escoffier: The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery. This is a rich, lovely mushroom soup that screams for Chardonnay — or at least some sort of full-bodied white that’s gone through malolactic fermentation. Maybe a Lodi Viognier… OK, I digress.
What makes this soup Escoffier is the fact that I am using a veloute (vel-oo-TAY), a mixture of a simple butter-flour roux and poultry stock. I am also putting the soup together the way Escoffier directs, although I leave the addition of a liaison of eggs and cream up to you. I like it.
What makes this soup me is that I am using chanterelles, a bit of brandy (Armagnac to be precise), and a touch of saffron — because I like the idea of it with the golden chanterelles I used. What if you can’t find fresh chanterelles? You can buy them fresh or dried online, or use another fresh mushroom and omit the saffron. Other shrooms I’d suggest would be, in order: porcini, morels, cremini, button. If you make this with another kind of mushroom and like it, definitely leave me a comment so I can give it a whirl.
Serves 4-6.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
VELOUTE
- 6 cups chicken stock, or pheasant, turkey or quail stock (you can go with duck or goose stock if you use morels, cremini or porcini mushrooms)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons flour
SOUP
- 1 pound fresh mushrooms
- 2 minced shallots
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup cream
- 1 shot brandy (Armagnac is my preference)
- 1/4 teaspoon saffron
- Salt to taste
- Make the veloute. Heat the stock to a bare simmer. In another pot, heat the butter until frothing and stir in the flour. Stirring all the while, let this cook for a few minutes over medium heat. Do not let it brown.
- Whisk the hot stock into the roux and let this simmer for 20 minutes, stirring often. You want it to slowly cook down by at least 1/3 and be silky looking.
- While the veloute is simmering, make the mushroom base. Mince the mushrooms and shallots fine and sweat them in a saute pan over medium heat with a touch of salt. Cook, stirring often, until the shallots are translucent and the mushrooms give up their water.
- Crumble the saffron into the brandy and add it to the mushroom base. Turn the heat up to high and toss or stir to combine. Cook until the brandy is nearly gone.
- Buzz the mushroom base into a puree in a food processor.
- OPTIONAL: If you want a truly refined French soup, push this puree through a fine-mesh strainer.
- When the veloute is ready, add the mushroom puree and stir well to combine. Cook this at a bare simmer for 10 minutes.
- OPTIONAL: If you want a mushroom garnish, slice a few chanterelles lengthwise and sear them in an dry pan until they give up their water and brown.
- Beat together the egg yolks and cream, then ladle — a little at a time — some soup base into the egg-cream mixture. This is called a liaison, and you are tempering the eggs with the hot stock slowly, so they do not congeal. Once you have 3-4 ladles of soup into egg-cream mixture, pour it all back into the soup and simmer. DO NOT BOIL.
- OPTIONAL: Put this soup through the fine-mesh strainer again to remove any lumps and return to low heat.
- To finish the soup, turn off the heat and whisk in the remaining butter.
- Serve with the seared mushrooms in the center, with crusty bread and white wine. Enjoy decadence.
holy crap. that really is sex in a bowl. Fantastic looking mushroom soup. I was all ready to comment on the pasta dish, and seared mushrooms – but just don’t see the point now, after seeing that soup. WOW.
Love veloute’s.. however it seems like that term is now used for anything which is slightly creamy (or like satin as you say). Just another example of culinary bastardification (made that word up). Glad to see you sticking true to form with this awesome soup.
Funny you should mention chanterelles. Spent Sunday with my sweetie picking them in our spot in Maryland. we have been lucky this year with a good harvest, lots of rain early (May) and rain currently.. You are so right about lots of butter. We enjoyed them sauteed with shallots and butter and a hint of white wine over pasta topped off with some parmesan . Yummy.
Y’all would hate to have me for a neighbor. I would be over all the time.
Best regards,
Albert
Wow! I saw your blog post via a RT from @earthydelights on Twitter. It has been an amazing year for chanterells in Montana so I have a large stock pile – this soup is now on my “to make” list. Thanks for posting!
A Blog post on foraging:
http://allthingsitalianinmt.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/foraging-for-mushrooms/
Check out this picture of one of our good hauls this year!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/allthingsitalian/3807678543/in/photostream/
“if you are classically trained you may be having flashbacks”
-Check.
But in that classical training, we pronounced it vel-OO-tay.
Even though I’ve never joined the near universal love-fest with mushrooms, this all looks great, Hank. I’d eat any mushroom dish you put in front of me.
BTW, I’ve had a simple soup of sauteed garlic and parsley in good beef stock sexed up beyond belief by a liaison. Those Frenchies knew a thing or two.
P.S. From your picture, it appears you’ve run into the same problem I have with orecchiette: they nest together too well and end up sticking to each other in the cooking water. I still use them for a few sauces that really benefit from their shape, but no amount of stirring whilst pouring in, nor while boiling seems to fix this. If you come across any solution, I’d love to hear about it.
OK, I needed a moment after reading this the compose myself. This soup is indeed sex in a bowl. Slow, passionate, steamy sex in a bowl.
I’ve never tried chanterelles; they’re not something I can find in stores or farmer’s markets locally, and I really don’t have sufficient knowledge of wild mushroom hunting to feel comfortable looking for them myself. Is there a good field guide you could recommend?
Haha, the first thing I thought when I read you got a dealer was exactly what you said I’d think. Though I will admit, now, in my late throes of pregnancy, that a good ‘shroom hookup is sounding pretty sweet.
Thank you Hank, you’ve just helped me decide what kind of soup I’ll be serving with my Autumn Harvest Feast this year. Even if I can’t find Chanterelles.
Kate: The best way to stop nesting is to plink the pasta in one at a time, stirring all the while. It is a massive PITA, so I rarely do it. On the bright side, this never happens to me with homemade orecchiette.
Tina: Best book if you are on the West Coast is “Mushrooms Demystified.” It’s also good for the East Coast, but is a bit Western-centric.
Chris: If you can’t find chanterelles, substitute in morels or porcini or even cremini and leave out the saffron.
I found your blog through your interview on Cooking with Amy. I admire you so much! I wish I could watch your experiences. Have you considered videos?
Jessica: I have considered videos, but they are suprisingly difficult to produce: A 3-minute video can take several days’ work. We are planning on doing som demo videos on techniques, though…
You’ll always get a comment out of me when you cook with mushrooms. There wasn’t one dish in this posting I wouldn’t try. I love wild mushroom soup, but my recipe looks pale when compared to yours. And the simple pasta dish? Heaven in a bowl.
Hank, been dry up here too. Chanties have only recently begun to pop. It’s true that we have a variety, the day-glo orange chanty found in coastal spruce, that fruits in July, but usually it isn’t until mid-August that the goldens start in earnest. This year the first flush got fried before they could reach size, so we’re waiting on another fruiting. Besides, I’ve been too busy salmon fishing! Soup looks great. My secret ingredient in chanty soup is powdered porcini, for that extra mushroomy boost.
Cheers,
Lang
I know. =/ I tried one and it didn’t turn out that well so after all the work, I didn’t post it, but I plan on trying again.
I’m inspired to dust off the old Escoffier and get to work! That soup looks positively decadent.
That sounds incredible. Hold the romp – I’ll just have seconds.
Good lookin’ soup.
On a side note, I must say that when I saw you use the word ‘mortified’ in a tweet about a cooking temp. error, I thought that you might need my cousin to knit you a meat thermometer cozy. I figure it’ll take about two yards of fabric.
Chanterelles are my absolute favorite. Reading this reminds me of when I was in Germany, where I could cook chanterelles daily, as they were so cheap and plentiful there. Your soup looks amazing, reminds me of a bowl I had in Berlin which was garnished with sauteed sweetbreads and more of the mushrooms. Wonderful stuff. Loved reading this post, very inspirational.
Yum – I am salivating and can hardly wait to try your recipe.
So sexy and yummy. My husband will be rapt when he comes home tonight =)
So like Lang said, it’s been a slow summer for Chanterelles here in the Seattle area. I just found my first 1/4 lb of the season on Monday. Going up tomorrow though, so we’ll see how they liked last weekend’s rain.
Anyhow, I tried the soup but with Chicken of the Woods and Porcinis instead. Awesome soup, thanks for the recipe. Still think it would be better with chanties though… Or if I get another Prince this year. Here’s the post http://russelleverett.blogspot.com/2009/09/chicken-of-woods-and-porcini-soup.html
[...] Hunter Angler Gardener Cook – Chanterelles and the Sexiest Soup Ever [...]
Whoa! After a run in the woods,and finding a good amount of the beautiful golden chanterelles and then your site,I am just finishing with the last of the butter…. oh my god. Julia would be proud. The key for me,not a seasoned cook,was to in fact, strain it. That `s where the texture really makes this shine. Off to a christmas party.Thanks
[...] in a bowl, indeed. Now get going. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Chanterelle Soup: Sex in a Bowl?", url: [...]
If you think that M. soup was good…. I recently made my famous Hungarian M. Soup with “just picked” Chanterelles. It is definitely “sex” in a bowl!
[...] sent me the link to this site which has great cooking hints and recipes for Chanterelles! Tiny [...]
[...] I recently happened across some fresh chanterelles, and because they are like gold (they’re pricey, elegant and they sparkle), I wanted to make use of all 198 grams I had in my possession. After a plea on Twitter for suggestions, @Hank_Shaw kindly offered his “sexiest soup ever.” [...]
It seems like every time I do a search I come across your website these days. This never happened last year! Absolutely love your site.
I made a simplified version of the chanterelle soup last night with the frozen pre-cooked (dry saute) chanties from our December mushroom hunt, in preparation for another foray next weekend. I turned it into a one-burner recipe by cooking the shallots and chanterelles with the veloute. Blended it all up and ran it through a sieve. It came out just great. (Yes, I did the liaison. Any excuse to use the word ‘liaison’ is good with me. Besides we have chickens and too many eggs!) I’m curious why the recipe has you do the mushrooms and shallots in a second pan; possibly so you can use your favorite saute pan? Is there any important culinary reason to do so (could it have been *even more sexy* if I’d followed the recipe properly?)
With pre-cooked chanterelles it was a reasonable weeknight endeavor – took about 35 minutes to make, I’d say. While the veloute was reducing, I made baked halibut with walnuts – a great flavor combination with the chanterelles, though all together the meal was frighteningly rich!
Holy mole! That Soup Is The Bomb!!!!!! Made it with the ‘mystery mix’ and baby bellas from the grocery. The rest of my thoughts on the soup experience are not printable in good company but they are all positive.
You’ve become my go-to website on how to *really* make good food but this was the first recipe where I had no idea what to do to make the dish I could imagine. The only comparable mushroom soup I’ve had is at a place in Santa Fe called Dinner for Two. If you ever get that way you must go. All their soups (hell, everything!) are out of this world. The wine selection is outrageous too.
Haven’t tried making your soup yet. I am lucky enough to live part of the year in Scotland and from my window I can almost see the patch of ground under some beech trees wher a glorious golden carpet of chanterelles grows in the summer. I’ve never seen them in West Sussex though – maybe I’m not looking in the right place!
Ruhlman would be proud. The recipe is actually derived from recipe 709 creme Agnes Sorel. Since I just received some beautiful Chanterelles from my neighbor who picked them in VT, I’m making this tonight and will report back.
This is my first year hunting Chanterelles. Wow.. Great season for them. I’m a big moral hunter and didn’t have much luck this past spring so the big find on these are a welcome site. If I get out to find anymore, I’ll have to resort to selling. (no storage room left) Can’t wait till it cools down to try the soup.
I live in the Highlands of Scotland, where Chanterelles are prolific from June until early October. They are so common that you could fill a basket within minutes at almost any woodland track. In fact its not uncommon to hear of mushroom dealers from France setting up camp in the woods to pick them for their markets. The funny thing is that so few people here eat them.
Looking forward to trying these recipes – and its good to be reminded just how lucky we are sometimes!
[...] modified a recipe by Hank Shaw (which he had modified from Escoffier) and although it has more steps than I usually take in my [...]
Holy wow. This is truly amazing, and in fact we substituted for things we had on hand, namely, using a sprinkle of fresh diced tarragon instead of saffron, and sweet onion instead of shallots. You still nearly made every jaded adult in the room cry. This is incredible soup.
The only way I know to thank you is to share what I believe to be an equally phenomenal dish, Drunken Mushrooms. Less subtle but equally impacting I believe.
dried porcini mushrooms a large double handful
cremini mushrooms (baby bellas) 16 oz
red wine, enough to hydrate the porcinis and a little more for sauce
8 cloves garlic
1 small onion
olive oil
risotto
butter
cream 3 Tbs
grated Romano cheese 1/2 to 1 cup
beef stock – we use Better than Gourmet
Prep:
Soak the porcinis in wine overnight if you can, 2 hours if you can’t
Press the garlic or dice very fine
clean and slice the creminis
dice the onion
Cook:
In a pot put 2-3 Tbs butter and cook on med-low for 1-2 minutes until it gets foamy
Add about half the garlic and cook 1 minute
Add the diced onion and cook 1 minute
Add the risotto and cook 1-2 minutes
Pour as much of the wine as you can from the mushroom-wine mixture
Add 1 tsp or so of the beef stock
Make up the rest of the risotto liquid using water (risotto roughly 2-1 like other rice)
While the risotto is cooking,
Put some olive oil in a pan and saute the rest of the garlic 1 minute
Add the baby bellas and cook for another 2-4 minutes until they’re about half done
Dice the porcinis and add them to the baby bellas with some butter and a little more stock
Once the risotto is a little past al dente you can fold in the mushrooms from the pan, and add the cream
Fold in the Romano just before serving.
I am still salivating over this amazing mushroom soup. We picked a pound of beautiful Chanterelles this afternoon in our home town on the West Coast of British Columbia while 4 x 4ing in the lower mountains. I wanted to honour them by making an extra special soup and I found your site, Hank. I whipped it up and can’t get enough of it. Thank you!!
We have already made use of seven plus pounds of chanterelles this season, and I just scored five more. So pleased to have found this recipe and the one for pickling chanterelles – I cant wait to try them both!
We have had a bumper crop of Chanterelles this year in Plumas County. I picked my third grocery bag full yesterday, all within 100 yds of my kitchen door! (Gives new meaning to sourcing locally!) Anyway….I had to try your soup tonight. I did everything according to the recipe except I gave it a partial buzz with an imersion blender because I wanted to leave some mushroom pieces. Wow! It was fantastic. A bit rich and decadent, but then there ain’t nothing wrong with a little rich and decadent once in a while! Got a great soup and learned some new thickening technique.
Thanks very much!
Finally a recipe to make all my illegal trespassing, poison oak scratching, tick picking, buming around worth it! Thanks for the very easy to follow directions!
found twenty lbs of lobster mushrooms today i bet this will help me use a few lbs they are one of the best! had to run from a momma black bear but i will go back for more!
[...] Cream of Chanterelle Soup -4 cups chicken stock -5T butter -2T flour -1 pound chanterelle mushrooms -2 shallots -1/2c cream -1 shot brandy -1/4t saffron -salt -3 egg yolks [...]
I am supper fortunate to live in Northern Oregon, and the great fortune of finding a bountiful harvest of Chanterelles over the weekend. I cooked up this lovey soup recipe, but my final product turned out sort of…bland. I added salt at the end, but it still tastes, well flavorless. I am wondering if the mushrooms were not at their prime and that resulted in the lack of flavor (this is the first time I have cooked with Chanterelles)? Thanks for any tips!!
I collected winter chanterelles here in France, so gave your recipe a try. It was superb, many thanks for posting it!! Lovely intense flavours.. so I am out hunting for more now!!
Has anyone had any luck freezing leftovers for later?
I made this phenomenally luxurious soup for Thanksgiving and everyone loved it! So, for Christmas Eve, I decided to make a different version…..I used half shitake and half oyster mushrooms, omitted the saffron, and used sherry instead of brandy. It was fabulous!…. such a luscious umami flavor yum!…Cheers to Mushroom Soup!