The season of soups is starting as the first frosty mornings herald the transition of autumn to winter. Samhain is around the corner. Today I made a cauliflower fungus broth with nettle seed nokedli.
Whether you celebrate Halloween or All Souls, around you the leaves are falling and the plant world dying down again – creating bare, wet, cold landscapes. The colour is draining away.
Nourish yourself with potage, broths, consommés, bouillon, bortsch, chowder and gumbo. Steep winter roots and the last of the herbs and fungi with warming spices, and serve with love ❤️
Here’s how to make a delicious wild broth with the last of the fungi as it starts to yield to the frost.
Ingredients
1 kg of mixed fresh fungi*
1 large onion
1 large leek
4 cloves of garlic
2 large carrots/parsnips**
1 handful herbs*
1 long length of dried oarweed kelp
1 tbsp dried porcini powder
20g unsalted butter
20g coconut oil
Salt, pepper, etcetera
*The last lot of fungi I used were chanterelles, false saffron milkcaps, winter chanterelles and deceivers.
**You can add wild roots like dandelion or burdock
***Last time I used bay leaves, bog myrtle, mugwort, thyme and hogweed leaf.
For the nokedli
75g flour
25g nettle seed
2 eggs
2 tsp salt
Directions
Fry the onion, leek, garlic in half of the butter and coconut oil. When softened transfer to a large stock pan. Repeat and fry the roughly chopped fungi until slightly caramelised and add to the pan.
Pour on 3 litres of water and add all the other ingredients except the salt and pepper.
Bring to the boil and simmer for an hour or two if you have the time.
Strain through a very fine sieve lined with a muslin cloth. Draw the edges of the cloth together to make a bag and keep in place with a rubber band. Suspend the bag until all the liquid has come out.
Refrigerate until the fat sets on the top and then lift it out.
To use this mushroom stock as a soup, heat it through and season it. While it is heating fry a few special finds like hen of the woods or cauliflower fungus (or any shop mushrooms) in large, interesting shapes and set to one side, keeping warm.
Now make the nokedli. Mix the flour and nettle seeds in a bowl. Break the eggs into the bowl and mix all vigorously together until you have a smooth lump of pliable dough.
As the stock starts to simmer, place a nokedli grater (or large holed colander) over the pan. Put the dough on top. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, push the dough through the holes and into the stock. Stir the pan to prevent any clumping together on the bottom.
Simmer for 3 minutes. Now season the broth with salt and pepper. (This is done at the end so that salt from the kelp and nokedli don’t make you oversalt the soup.)
Ladle into warm bowls and add a spoonful of the dried mushrooms. Enjoy!