Oyster Mushroom Soup – Ragmans Lane Farm
Ingredients
4 tablespoons Netherend butter
1/2 pound oyster mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1 large onion
1 cup cubed peeled potatoes
2 cups milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Dash of ground mace
Dash of Tabasco sauce
Pinch of dried thyme
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup dry Orchards Cider
Method
Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large saucepan. Cook the mushrooms and onions for 3 minutes or until tender. Remove with a slotted spoon and keep warm.
Add the remaining 2 tablespoons butter to the pan and slowly cook the potato cubes for 10 minutes or until tender. Gradually stir in the milk. Add the salt, pepper, mace, Tabasco, and thyme.
Allow this to come to a boil, then remove the pan from the heat. In a mixing bowl, combine the egg yolks with the Orchards Cider and slowly blend the mixture into the soup pan.
Add the onions and mushrooms and heat almost, but not quite, to a boil. Taste to correct the flavouring.
Ragmans Lane inoculate poplar logs with Oyster mushrooms. Oyster mycelium is particularly vigorous, and will colonise the log very quickly producing prolific amounts of mushrooms under the right conditions. We have found that cooler weather prompts fruiting. The logs will fruit in spring and autumn. Once purchased, keep the log in a damp shady area of the garden watering the log in dry spells throughout the summer.
