BACON & SHIITAKE

My son, Barry, kept asking me to make a mushroom soup, so while I was at Tesco tonight, I picked up some ingredients and made this gorgeous tasting soup for him.

Ingredients :

• 4 Medium Potatoes (coarsely chopped)
• 1 Large Onion (finely chopped)
• 2 Cloves of Garlic (finely chopped)
• 250g Mushroom (sliced)
• 125g Shiitake Mushrooms (sliced)
• 2 Vegetable Stock Cubes
• 4 Rashers of Lean Bacon (remove the fat)
• 75ml Double Cream

Method :

Boil a pint and a half of water in the kettle. Add a small amount of oil to your soup pan and saute the onions and garlic for about 4/5 minutes, then add the potatoes and 250g mushrooms and cook for a further two minutes. Pour the boiling water into a measuring jug and mix in two stock cubes, then add the stock to the soup pan.

Season with salt & pepper and bring the pan to the boil and then reduce the heat to allow the soup to simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add a small amount of oil to a shallow frying pan and lightly fry the lean bacon. When ready, remove the bacon and put your sliced Shiitake mushrooms into the frying pan. While they're frying, chop up the bacon into small pieces and put to one side. When the Shiitake mushrooms are lightly fried, put them with the bacon.

When ready, transfer the contents of the pan to a blending machine and blend to purée the soup. I actually used a hand-blender in the pan itself. If you choose this method, just be careful not to scald yourself!

Introduce about 75ml of double cream, stirring well. Add the Shiitake Mushrooms and bacon and gently cook for another couple of minutes.

Serve into warm soup bowls and enjoy!