Chanterelle Cream Soup

Ingredients:

• At least a pound of chanterelles
• 2 large leeks (white part only)
• 3 TSP EVOO
• 3 TSP butter
• ¼ cup flour
• Splash of white wine
• 2 cups best quality chicken stock
• A few sprigs of thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Salt & white pepper
• Micro greens or your favorite fresh herb

Process:

1. Pick through chanterelles and brush clean.
2. Remove all hard and dry parts.
3. Chop roughly.
4. Slice leeks.
5. Sauté leeks in EVOO and butter over medium heat for five minutes, stirring periodically.
6. Add chanterelles and cook, stirring occasionally until they’ve released their water, it’s mostly evaporated and the first few pieces are just starting to brown slightly.
7. Sprinkle flour into pan and stir well to coat completely. Be sure that there are no areas of dry white flour remaining.
8. Add white wine and deglaze pan.
9. Add stock slowly, stirring as you go to fully combine stock with the roux that’s been created from the butter and flour. Adding stock too quickly will lead to lumps.
10. Toss in the thyme sprigs and bay leaf, and simmer until completely tender… about 30 minutes.
11. Remove thyme and bay leaf, and transfer to a blender.
12. Blend carefully until you’ve got a complete puree… about 2 minutes.
13. Mushrooms normally won’t puree 100%. For the perfect soup texture, pass the puree through a sieve or strainer into a clean pot, pressing on remaining bits to extract as much liquid as possible.
14. Stir in cream to taste (More cream will offer a richer more decadent soup while less cream allows the chanterelle mushroom flavor to shine.)
15. Season with salt and white pepper, ladle into hot bowls and garnish as desired.