success

sometimes you make a soup and think it will be ok, and then you taste it and ... nothing. nothing is worse than bad, truth be told. when you taste a simmering broth and are basically wondering "is this more or less flavorful than water?"

i went to the flatbush co-op today, prepared to spend more money than i needed to on ingredients because i knew they had a rack of dried mushrooms. not true any longer. not a dried mushroom in the place (who gets rid of their dried mushrooms just before the fall??????). so there were no porcinis in my porcini-reliant soup, and i set to using one million other mushrooms and mushroom boullion to make up for it. all of the warning comment-threads on chowhound that you can't actually substitute porcini mushrooms with anything else were right. well.... sort of.

after adding not-beef, not-chicken, and more mushroom boullion, and some burnt fig jam for good measure, i was still dissatisfied. i called logan in a panic. my soup has failed, i said. she gave good ideas for saving it. then i called nina, who like a genius suggested that i make a red wine reduction with lots of herbs. so, i did that...twice... and now the soup has the feeling of a soup you want to eat. mushrooms, wild rice, a bouquet garni of parsley, thyme, a bay leaf, and a mirepoix. that's basically it.

so. the lessons: do find porcinis if you are making a porcini-reliant soup. and if you can't find porcinis, make a different soup. or acknowledge that you are making a different kind of mushroom soup and adapt your technique accordingly. for example: sausage would have made a great substitute! it would be salty and savory and deep, in a similar, but different way.

in the end, the soup is delicious. and the best thing about soup swap, i have realized, is that it is making me a better cook. what flavors am i missing? what is really wrong? and how do i adapt? these are both good cooking lessons, and good life-lessons.

and so i bring you, for our first rain-soaked fall-day soup swap: wildrice and mushroom soup. but mine looks (and i bet tastes) nothing like the recipe intended. life is like that. enjoy.