Mushroom and rosemary soup

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So, it's time to come clean. Lola and Lu no longer share a kitchen. This sad fact has been swept under the carpet by us somewhat on this blog, but its time to face facts. Lu moved out 2 months ago and Colm and I are continuing on as the sole occupiers of said Kitchen. However, Lu is a regular visitor and thankfully I have a spare room with a bed made up especially for her.

On Monday night, the end of the bank holiday, I decided that since I hadn't been doing any proper cooking in the longest time, I would cook a 3 course meal especially for Lu. And Colm, of course.

We started with this amazingly mushroomy mushroom soup, which I made using some dried mushrooms my Mum brought me back from France last year. You could use a mixture of fresh ones as long as you can get your hands on something other that button mushrooms, it will turn out grand but perhaps not so intense!

Ingredients:

1 medium punnet ordinary mushrooms

1 litre hot beef stock

2 - 3 cups dried mushrooms

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1/2 litre milk

3-4 big sprigs rosemary

1 oz butter

3 glugs olive oil

1 tbsp flour

2 tbsps sherry

First, soak the dried mushrooms in the beef stock for about half an hour. Meanwhile chop the onion and garlic and saute in a big pot with the lid on until translucent. Add the chopped ordinary mushrooms and 2/3rds of the chopped rosemary. Cook with the lid on until the mushrooms are cooked through and have released their juices, about 10 minutes. Drain the dried mushrooms and add them to the pot. Cook for another 5 mins. Reserve the stock. Add the sherry and stir well. Then sprinkle in the flour and mix in so that it soaks up all the mushroom and sherry juices. Gradually add the stock, stirring well. Simmer to thicken and simmer for a further 5 or 10 minutes. Blend the soup with a stick blender and add the milk, up to 1/2 a litre depending on how thick you like it. While the soup is cooking, you could fry some reserved mushrooms in butter with the rest of the rosemary until crispy to use as a garnish.

Serve with cream if you like, chopped parsley and the mushroom garnish.