Mushroom soup: first course with mushrooms or mushroom-based
Mushroom soup is a traditional dish of Slavic cuisine. Such a soup is usually prepared from fresh mushrooms, but you can also use pre-prepared mushrooms: dried, salted, pickled and frozen. One type of mushroom is added to simple soups. It is advisable to add several different types of mushrooms to complex mushroom soups.
Mushroom soup: different types, cooking technologies
There are several main options that differ both in the amount of mushrooms and in the technology of preparation.
For example, "Mushroom Soup" is the first dish in which the main ingredient is mushrooms, and "Mushroom Soup" is a dish in which mushrooms are used as an additive to enhance the taste and impart mushroom aroma. Add one porcini mushroom to a simple potato soup - you get a wonderful mushroom soup. Replace part of the potato volume with porcini mushrooms - and you have a great mushroom soup with a unique aroma.
Soups based on mushrooms can be either vegetarian or based on broths from meat, poultry or fish.
Cooking technologies can also be different:
- simple cooking
- braising with subsequent additional cooking or without it
- with pre-frying one or more ingredients
Mushroom soup is most often served hot.
It is already possible to consider the so-called "Combined soups", which originally came from oriental cuisine, as traditional for our cuisine: all the ingredients are prepared separately, when served, all this is put on a plate and poured with broth. This serving is especially effective for combined soups-mashed potatoes with fried mushrooms: guests are served plates with mouth-watering pieces of mushrooms and vegetables, and then carefully pour thick mushroom puree into the plates. This soup is served hot, warm and cold.
Any first course can be prepared with mushrooms or based on mushroom broth:
- simple and complex clear soups
- thickened soups
- puree soups
- borscht
- pickles
- hodgepodge
For transparent mushroom soups, they take porcini mushrooms, champignons, and sometimes oyster mushrooms. This is why transparent mushroom soup is called "transparent" - all the ingredients are visible on the plate. There is a misconception that a transparent soup with mushrooms is such an uncomplicated, unpretentious soup, 4-5 points in a recipe, leave it in a saucepan and quickly boil it. A simple mushroom soup, indeed, can be prepared very quickly, with a minimum of food and one type of mushroom on hand. It will be delicious! Multicomponent soups can consist of 15 or more ingredients, 2-3 (or more!) Types of mushrooms are added to mushroom soups, such a soup is a work of culinary art.
Mushroom soup can be thickened with flour or egg.
Mushroom soup can be prepared as a puree soup by grinding all the ingredients with a blender. For mushroom puree soup, porcini mushrooms and champignons, powder from dried raincoats are used, less often other mushrooms.
Mushroom soup is prized primarily for its mushroom flavor. Therefore, be careful with the addition of spices: they should emphasize, not clog our main ingredient: mushrooms.For complex filling soups, such as mushroom borscht or mushroom pickle, take not only fresh, but also salted mushrooms. Salted mushrooms must be sautéed beforehand, separately from other vegetables.
What associations do you have when you hear this name, "Mushroom Soup"? Can you imagine a thick, rich soup with beautiful pieces of mushrooms? Or a vegetarian meal with no animal products? Or lean soup without meat and fats? Borscht with mushrooms, herbs and a spoonful of snow-white sour cream?
All of these are mushroom soups for all occasions.
For me, "Mushroom Soup" is a testing ground for culinary experiments, where the most unexpected combinations of products are possible with consistently excellent results.