Making Fall Soups With Chef Kathy Gunst

As the weather turns colder, Kathy Gunst‘s thoughts turn to soups and hot sandwiches.

Gunst, Here and Now’s resident chef, is also thinking about what’s in season: mushrooms and apples. Her 2011 book “Notes from a Maine Kitchen: Seasonally Inspired Recipes” is a month by month look at what produce is best and includes both anecdotes and recipes.

For October, Kathy forages for mushrooms and comes up with recipes for mushroom “pasta,” roasted mushroom soup and grilled Gruyere with maple-caramelized apples. Yum!

Guest:

Kathy Gunst, Here and Now resident Chef

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Making Fall Soups With Chef Kathy Gunst
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We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

Pcastagner

Hi this is philippe @cinnabarforager. You don’t need to go to maine to hunt mushrooms! You can go with me in the philadelphia area, or you can eatthem at Le bec fin and other locall restaurants.

Oh, and the “not washing mushrooms” rule does not always apply. There are ways to wash properly.
http://www.facebook.com/stuart.fox.35 Stuart Fox

Whenever I hear a guest say something totally stupid, like “you can’t wash mushrooms,” I tend to discount everything else they have to say. Mushrooms can be washed, and soak up very little water, as proved by Alton Brown on his Mythsmashers episode. He soaked mushrooms in water for 10, 20, and 30 minutes and the mushrooms only soaked up about a teaspoon of water–not very much at all. Yes, when he gave them a quick spritz in a stream of water, they soaked up the same teaspoon of water–which, undoubtedly would be cooked out of the mushroom later.
- Njbrennan
  
  You could reply to this in a kinder manner…calling someone”stupid” is rather mean spirited.
  - Mark
    
    True that. As cooks we tend to follow certain ‘rules’ of the kitchen at least until someone proves to us otherwise. The Alton episode was an eye-opener. It certainly is no reason to discount what she has to offer however. No one knows it all and we all can be educated no matter how long we’ve been cooking, Isn’t that partly why we love it? Adding oil to pasta water to keep it from sticking may be another myth that needs to be busted. I saw the Barefoot Contessa do it! How many cookbooks has SHE written? Quite a few. But I think the professional wisdom is that a good shot of salt is all that is needed for perfectly tasty, non-sticky pasta.
msshana74

I can’t get to the store fast enough for mushrooms and beef stock! Can’t wait to dig into this fabulous looking soup :)
Mary Lou Yelverton

Couldn’t wait to get home to look up today’s recipes!
AJ Bozenmayer

Calling this a ‘wild’ mushroom soup is nonsense. None of the three mushrooms in this recipe are wild, all three are grown on large indoor commercial farms. Just call it mushroom soup, there is no need for false labeling. And since these mushrooms are grown indoors, they are available year-round, so it is not a ‘seasonal’ or ‘autumn’ dish either.
Njbrennan

This soup looks delicious! Can’t wait to try it! And the grilled cheese…
Kathleen

Roasting any vegetables first, including beets, definitely makes a tasty soup. If you need to simplify after roasting, just put in a blender or food processor with liquid, right after roasting, adding either soup stock or milk and you have a thick delicious soup. Pine nuts on top add to nutritional value and taste perfect.

Ms. Gunst made a comment about her Maine wine being all most to good to use for cooking however, rule of thumb is, never cook with wine you wouldn’t drink.

The difference between a good dish and a great one are the ingredients.

About mushroom washing- in this day and age- with increased use of insecticide, fertilizer run off and tainted ground water – I always wash my mushrooms.

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