Since no one has started any discussions here yet, I thought I'd throw out the following question...

I have been playing with mushroom soups - not the Campbell's paste that they serve in various prisons round the world - but delicate broths using a clarified court bouillon base.

So far I have found that ceps and shitake work the best at retaining their texture and flavor but chanterelles become soggy and flabby...

Any thoughts?

I have found that with chanterelles and button mushrooms it is best to make a mushroom consomme, or, failing that, strain the soup to remove the fibre. That way you keep the taste and lose the flabbiness.

The solution to that is to make your base consomme or bouillon first and then, right before serving, toss in a few small buttons or chanterelles - these seem to be the best in this way (shitakes are too fibrous) but I have not tried this method for ceps. What happens, especially if the broth is really hot, is the shroom does a quick cook and softens up. It is a really nice way to add some texture to a clean broth. Other veggies that work really well with this method are snow peas, and finely diced root veggies.

I must admit to preferring ceps in an omelette (like truffles) rather than in soup. As for shitake, slice open a thick steak horizontally, stuff it with shitake and cook on the highest heat you can manage for 90 seconds on either side. Mmmm! Leave soup for the poorer fungi. Sorry - as this is a soup thread!

No worries Harry - I love the steak idea... Thinking about making it tonight but doing it with a shitake/herb compound butter. Should light up the kitchen pretty well when the fat hits the range grill ;)