Friday, June 27, 2008

Apple & Mushroom Soup - Thermomix Recipe

















The recipe is based on one from an English chef, John Tovey, who was the proprietor at Miller Howe restaurant on the shores of Lake Windermere, in the English Lakes district. It appears in his Radio Times Step-by-step All-colour Cookbook and, as you can see from his costume on the cover, he had some unusual ideas.

The recipe converts very well to making in the Thermomix and blitzing at the end really reduces the need for straining.
Another benefit is the ability to rapidly convert ice cubes to a liquid. I use ice cube trays (the large rubbery ones) to freeze stock so that thawing is a breeze after blitzing in the Thermomix.

It is not the most appealling of colours, but add some truffles or truffle salsa and it really lifts it.

For a bit of variation add some walnuts after the soup has been blended and run the Thermomix for a few seconds at Speed 3 to break them up a little.

Apple & Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:

200g onions, peeled & quartered
100g butter or oil
400g apples, cut into large chunks (there is no need to peel or core them)
400g mushrooms, chopped if large
100ml dry sherry
800ml stock, (beef is good or vegetable for vegetarians)
Salt & Pepper
Fresh cream and herbs to garnish

Method:
Place onions in bowl and chop for 5 seconds on speed 7, scraping down and chopping more if needed. Add the butter or oil and sauté for 4 minutes at 100ºC on speed 1.

Insert apples into TM bowl and process for 7 seconds at speed 7 to break up apple into small pieces. Cook for 15 - 20 minutes at 90°C on speed 2 until skins are very soft. Add mushrooms and blend for 7 – 10 seconds at speed 7 to break up mushrooms a little. Use the spatula through the lid to push mushrooms down if needed. Once the mushrooms are in smallish pieces add the sherry and cook for 15 - 20 minutes at 90°C on speed 2.

Blend for 30 seconds by slowing going from speed 1 to speed 9. Make sure the measuring cup is firmly in place when doing this step.

Add the stock and cook for another 3 minutes at 90°C on speed 2.

Check for seasoning before placing in bowls.

Garnish with cream and herbs and serve with a glass of sherry.

The soup can be made more luxuriant by adding cream to the mix or truffle salsa.

5 comments:

  1. I forgot to buy onions this week, that's the only reason I haven't tried this soup. But you have to tell me how nice it is and that I'm crazy to delay any longer. The unfamiliar combination of apple and mushroom is causing great confusion to my imaginary taste buds.

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  2. The flavour is predominantly mushroom, but the texture is changed by the apples. Adds some smoothness and thickens it - think gently stewed apples (unless you don't like stewed apples), think possibly pectin.

    I did it originally as a joke because my partner spent a lot of time in the Lakes District and idolised John Tovey (& has 6 or 7 of his books). We suffer from a similar disease to 101 Cookboks blog and decided to start using the recipe books. This was the first book I took down & almost the first page it opened at - so...

    The benefit in the Thermomix is the final blitzing - the pips just disappear (and they are supposed to be healthy?? -forgot wht janine said). The original said that if you don't have a blnder then use an electric mixer and pass thru a sieve - fun!!

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  3. OK, now I know what I'm dealing with
    B17, anticancer vitamin in those seeds

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  4. I've just tried it today for supper Thermomixer. It was wonderful!! I am not used to see "apples" as soup ingredient but it resulted so great. I loved the somewhat sweet taste on the background
    Thank you so much for this wonderful soup!
    I made a few changes as below:
    I didn't have sherry so I've used white wine
    I used 800g boiling water + 40gr Thermomix veggie stock (I didn't have to add any more salt)
    To reduce calories I've used 50g EVO instead of 100g and Philadelpdia&yogurt mixture instead of cream

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  5. Thanks farfallina. I had never used apple in mushroom soup and was sceptical, but I was interested to see what the quality was like and it worked. Even using whole apples resulted in a smooth soup once blended.

    Strangely enough a chef made pumpkin soup for a class last week and it had apple too.

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