Читать книгу Rose Elliot’s New Complete Vegetarian - Rose Elliot - Страница 46

My father was brilliant at finding field mushrooms – probably due to years of practice growing up on a farm in the Yorkshire Dales – and this is the soup that my mother used to make with his precious finds. It works very well with other types of mushrooms too.

SERVES 4

225g (8oz) mushrooms

1 small onion, quartered

1 bay leaf

1 garlic clove, sliced

a few parsley stalks

575ml (1 pint) vegetable stock

50g (2oz) butter

40g (1½oz) flour

about 575ml (1 pint) milk

salt and freshly ground black pepper

freshly grated nutmeg

a pinch of cayenne pepper

1 tbsp sherry (optional)

Wash the mushrooms and remove the stalks. If you’re using field mushrooms take off the skins too, but this isn’t necessary with cultivated mushrooms. Put the stalks (and skins if you’ve removed them) into a medium-sized saucepan together with the onion, bay leaf, garlic, parsley stalks and stock and bring to the boil, then leave to simmer for 10 minutes to extract the flavours. Strain the liquid into a measuring jug (discarding the stalks) and make the quantity up to 850ml (1½ pints) with the milk.

Melt 40g (1½noz) of the butter in the saucepan and stir in the flour. When it froths, pour in a quarter of the milk mixture and stir over a fairly high heat until it has thickened. Repeat the process with the rest of the milk in three more batches.

Chop or slice the mushrooms, fry them lightly in the remaining butter and add to the thickened milk.

Season with salt, pepper, a grating of nutmeg, a pinch of cayenne and the sherry if you’re using it. Cook gently for 3–4 minutes to give the flavours a chance to blend, then serve.