Clear porcini mushroom essence

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• ¾ liter chicken broth, strong unsalted
• ¼ liter Game stock, strong
• 15 g porcini mushrooms, dried
• 3 sprigs of thyme, fresh
• Fleur de Sel
• Port wine, white dry or semi-dry
• possibly ground beef and egg white for clarification
• Pepper, white
• Sugar

Instructions

Working time approx. 15 minutes; Rest time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 15 minutes

Heat the stock, add the porcini mushrooms, remove the pot from the heat, and let the mushrooms soak for about 30 minutes. Bring the mixture to a boil, add the thyme, then reduce the heat and let the soup simmer for another 15-30 minutes. Remove the thyme after 10 minutes. Caution! Taste it occasionally; depending on the quality of the porcini mushrooms, the soup can quickly become bitter. If so, remove the mixture from the heat early and filter it through cheesecloth. Season with salt and pepper, and add a little sugar to taste. If desired, clarify with ground beef and egg white. Heat before serving, add port wine to taste, and reduce slightly if the alcohol is too strong or spicy. Serve with hazelnut dumplings. The recipe can be found here: http://www.chefkoch.de/rezept-anzeige.php?ID=46031015582621&ID2=71 in the CK database. Super simple, quick to make, very delicious… and you can also vary the dumplings with parsley or pumpkin seeds, for example, and you can also flavor the essence with sherry or Armagnac instead of port wine.