Chanterelles are my favorite mushrooms. I like to dry them so I can add them to sauces all year long. Today we bought some chanterelles in a box and there were a lot of small pieces. I decided to make a soup with the small pieces and dry the larger ones.

We used to get a really nice chanterelle soup at the Hotel Grand Marina in Helsinki, but since they let Jamie Oliver into their kitchen, it’s not really worth going there. I wanted to try to recreate that, so I looked for a Finnish recipe. Finns know mushrooms! Feel free to use other mushrooms. I’m just using my favorite.

Gather your ingredients:
4 dl (about 1 3/4 cups) of chopped chanterelles (or other mushroom)
medium onion, chopped
3 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
8 dl (3 1/2 cups) hot water
1 vegetable stock cube
1 1/2 tsp salt
black pepper and white pepper to taste
2 dl (about 7 ounces) cream

Dissolve the stock cube in the hot water and set aside. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and add the chopped onion and mushrooms.

Saute the mushrooms and onion for a few minutes until the mushrooms release their liquid. It should look something like this.

Stir in the flour and cook for a minute.

Gently stir about one-third of the stock into the mushrooms.

Continue to stir gently and add another one-third of the stock.

Add the rest of the stock and stir until the flour is no longer a paste and has been completely mixed in.

Add seasonings and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cook for about 30 minutes, stirring about every 10 minutes. The soup should be smooth, thick and reduced.

Stir in cream and adjust seasonings if necessary. Heat through.

Congratulations, your mushroom soup is now ready. You can eat it or you can enhance it. The thing that made the Grand Marina soup so special was a surprise at the bottom of the bowl. Chunks of smoked reindeer were hiding under the soup. The flavors together were unforgettable. I happened to have some elk, so I smoked it and added it to the soup. About 500 grams of elk meat smoked for 50 minutes in a smoke box. Smells incredible.

Slice the smoked meat.

Cut the slices into chunks and put them in the bowl.

Pour the soup over the smoked meat chunks and serve.