Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup

I can't seem to get enough home-made, hearty soup lately. It must be the snow and freezing temperatures that have been in New York City for weeks. It's also a pleasure to cook up a big batch of soup and have it around for a few meals. This soup comes from Martha Rose Shulman and her online series for the New York Times called Recipes for Health. The dried mushrooms give the soup a meaty flavor and feel and the time investment is minimal. Enjoy the soup with great bread, a salad and cheese.

1/2 oz. dried porcini mushrooms

2 cups boiling water

1-2 tbl. extra virgin olive oil, as needed

1 large onion, chopped

2 medium carrots, diced

2 ribs celery, diced

1/2 lb. cremini mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed and sliced thick

2 large garlic cloves, minced

salt to taste

2/3 cup wild rice

2 quarts chicken or veggie stock or water

bouquet garnis of a few sprigs of thyme and parsley, bay leaf and Parmesan rind (see Notes)

1 cup frozen peas

freshly grated pepper to taste

1. Place the dried porcini mushrooms in a bowl or a Pyrex measuring cup, and pour on 2 cups boiling water. Let sit for 30 minutes. Set a strainer over a bowl and line it with cheesecloth. Lift the mushrooms from the water, and squeeze them over the strainer. Rinse in several changes of water, squeeze out the water and set aside. Pour the soaking water through the cheesecloth-lined strainer, and set aside.

2. Heat the oil in a large, heavy soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery. Cook, stirring often, until just about tender, about five minutes. Add the sliced fresh mushrooms. Cook, stirring, until the mushrooms are beginning to soften, about three minutes. Add the garlic and a generous pinch of salt. Continue to cook for about five minutes until the mixture is juicy and fragrant. Add the reconstituted dried mushrooms, the wild rice, bouquet garni, mushroom soaking liquid, stock or water, and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer one hour. Add the peas, and simmer another 10 minutes. Remove the bouquet garni, taste and adjust salt, add a generous amount of freshly ground pepper and serve.

Serves six.

Advance preparation: The soup will keep for about three days in the refrigerator, but the rice will swell and absorb the liquid, so you will have to add more to the pot when you reheat.

NOTES: Since I did not have the ingredients for a bouquet garnis, I added what I had on hand, a bay leaf and 1/2 tsp. of dried thyme. I removed the bay leaf when the soup was done. I doubled the amount of carrot and celery called for and did not add the frozen peas. Truthfully, I also did not use wild rice. That would have tasted delicious but I had leftover bulgur wheat (from the Georgian beef ragout meal (see 1/16/11) and added that during the last 10 minutes of cooking. Next time I will try the soup with the wild rice.