Wild Mushroom Soup

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Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots minced
1 1/2 lbs wild mushrooms cleaned and finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh thyme chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt more to taste
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper more to taste
6 cups vegetable stock

Steps:

Clean all the mushrooms before chopping wipe with damp paper towel
or remove dirt with small mushroom brush
Melt butter and olive oil in soup pot on medium heat
Add shallot
cook until beginning to caramelize
stirring infrequently
Add mushrooms
thyme
salt
and pepper; cook
stirring occasionally
until mushrooms have released their liquid and liquid has mostly evaporated
Add broth and any soaking liquid
scraping up browned bits Bring to a boil
reduce to simmer
and cook until mushrooms are tender Adjust seasoning
Remove from heat
cool slightly Puree soup with stand blender in batches or immersion blender until smooth Add more liquid if you want it thinner broth or water would do
Serve
NOTES I used a combination of fresh mushrooms including cremini
chanterelle
hen of the woods maitake
and beech bunashimeji For depth of flavor
I added some some dried shiitake mushrooms Soak dried mushrooms in 1-2 cups hot water for 30-60 minutes before use; add the liquid with the broth discard sediment; if using shiitakes
discard stems too
they are tough Instead of separating the thyme leaves
you can just tie a bunch of sprigs together and fish the bundle out before pureeing The original recipes suggested leaving it half-pureed and rustic but I found it grainy so I pureed it completely This soup can be made ahead Reserve 1-2 cups broth and add it while reheating on medium-low This is what I did for garnish per serving When the butter and olive oil were hot
I cooked some pretty slices of cremini and reserved them On each serving I drizzled about 1 tsp cream
eyedroppered very few drops of truffle oil
sprinkled a couple of thyme leaves
and floated a reserved mushroom slice