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1
PREPARE a veloute base by cooking the onion in butter in a 4-quart pot over medium heat, stirring almost continuously to prevent browning.
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2
When the onion turns translucent, after about 10 minutes, add the flour and stir over medium heat for 5 minutes more to cook out the starchy taste.
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3
ADD the Madeira and broth, whisk the soup to get rid of any lumps, and bring it to a simmer.
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4
Simmer for 5 minutes.
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5
PUT the mushrooms in a blender and add 1 cup of the hot soup base.
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6
Blend the mushrooms on high speed for about 2 minutes.
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7
Add a little more of the soup base if necessary to get them moving.
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8
PUT a strainer over the pot and pour the contents of the blender through it into the pot with the rest of the base.
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9
Add the cream.
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10
If you want the soup perfectly smooth, strain it through a medium or fine-mesh strainer.
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11
Bring the soup back to a simmer and season it with salt and pepper.
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12
Ladle it into hot bowls and put a dollop of whipped cream on each serving.
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13
SUGGESTIONS AND VARIATIONS
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14
This soup takes on a new dimension of flavor with wild or specially cultivated mushrooms.
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15
If you want to use dried mushrooms such as morels or porcini, soak a handful of the dried mushrooms in the Madeira or sherry used in the soup.
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16
When the mushrooms have softened, put them into the blender with the regular cultivated mushrooms.
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17
You can also use dried mushrooms or mushroom stems to make a mushroom broth to use as the base for mushroom soup.
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18
If you have fresh wild mushrooms such as morels, porcini, portobellos, or chanterelles, rinse them thoroughly and use them to replace any proportion of the regular cultivated mushrooms in the recipe.
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19
Save some of the whole mushrooms to decorate the bowls.
