French Mushroom Soup

Martha sheds light on the world of mushrooms and makes four fantastic recipes: savory buckwheat crepes with mushroom filling, a vegetarian mushroom ragù, French mushroom soup, and a modern-day mushroom risotto. You’ll be inspired to prepare her tasty recipes—for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup minced onion
• ½ cup unsalted butter
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 12 cups homemade chicken stock or low-sodium canned chicken broth
• 2 sprigs flat-leaf parsley, plus more for garnish
• 1 small dried bay leaf
• Pinch of dried thyme
• 3 pounds mixed mushrooms, such as shiitake, cremini, and oyster, trimmed and thinly sliced
• Coarse salt
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1 cup heavy cream

Method

1.  In a large stockpot, cook onions in 4 tablespoons butter over medium heat until soft, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in flour and cook over low heat for 4 minutes without browning. Add the stock, blending it completely with the flour. Add the parsley, bay leaf and thyme and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain into a second pot.
2. In a large skillet, heat 4 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add the cremini mushrooms and season with salt. Cook until softened, and then add the shiitake and oyster mushrooms. Season with salt and lemon juice and cook until mushrooms are deep golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Reheat stock mixture to a simmer. Whisk the egg yolks and cream until blended. While whisking, slowly add a cupful of the hot soup into the cream mixture and add back to the soup and heat to just below a simmer (if the soup simmers, the yolks will curdle). Add the cooked mushroom mixture and stir to combine. Serve garnished with parsley.