Wild Mushroom Soup

Yesterday I attended a cooking demonstration by Tyler Florence, as part of the NY Wine & Food Festival. After smelling all those delicious smells I was in the mood to come home and make something delicious. My friend and I wandered around a bit after the demo, and browsed in Chelsea Market. When I noticed Chantarelles for 11.99/lb, I decided I would have to make a mushroom soup. Chantarelles are a pastel orange color and meaty in texture, the flavor is a tiny bit sweet. Normally they retail for around $45-50/lb, so seeing the sign for 11.99 was quite the find. Chantarelles were scarce this year, not to be found in many NYC markets, due to improper weather conditions. These looked OK to me, usually Citarella has the best selection and even those look old and dry much of the time. They were of course drier and lighter in color than I am used to picking from the wild in Vermont, but they looked relatively fine - smooth, clean, whole mushrooms, with little bruising or dried edges. I picked up just a few oyster and shitake mushrooms for variety. I also stopped on the way home to pick up a loaf of sourdough and a bunch of parsley so I could recreate Tyler's awesome-smelling garlic bread to go with the soup.
This ended up being one of the best wild mushroom soups I've made, especially considering I made it vegetarian. I'll never fill-in with cremini or button mushrooms again - they are too heavy for this delicate soup.

I can't post the recipe here, it's a long time family secret - but if you're really nice and email me, maybe I'll share this new version with you ;) .