PRAWN AND MOREL SOUP

Vancouver Island chef Bill Jones served this soup at a recent wild foods dinner at his Deerholme Farm near Duncan. He hosts a monthly dinner at the farm - $85 pp – based on various seasonal themes go to his website at www.magnorth.bc.ca to see what’s coming up.

1 pound (454 g) local prawns, shell on

2 leeks, trimmed, washed and sliced

grapeseed oil

salt and pepper

1/2 cup white wine

1 tablespoon (15 mL) garlic, minced

1 tablespoon (15 mL) ginger, shredded

2 can coconut milk

1 teaspoon (5 mL) curry paste or powder

1 Tablepsoon (15 mL) hoisin sauce

2 cups (500 mL) morels or other fresh mushrooms, sliced

Peel the prawns and reserve the shells. Place the shells and the leeks in a roasting pan, drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in a 350F oven for 20-30 minutes, until well browned. Scrape into a saucepan and deglaze the roasting pan with wine, simmering over medium high heat and scraping up any browned bits. Add to the pot with the shells.

Add the stock, ginger, garlic, coconut milk and hoisin sauce to the saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the broth through a sieve into a clean saucepan, pressing the solids to extract all of the juices. Discard the solids.

Season the broth with salt ad pepper to taste. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and add the sliced morels. Simmer together for 5 minutes and serve (or remove from heat, chill and reheat just before service).

Seaweed froth:

1 tablespoon (15 mL) ground seaweed powder (pulverize nori in a blender or coffee grinder)

¼ cup whipping cream

shredded nori for garnish

In a bowl, combine the seaweed powder and cream and beat until frothy and thick. Spoon a little seaweed froth over each portion of soup, and garnish with shredded nori.

NOTE: You can also use reduced fat sour cream or thick plain yogurt in place of the cream.

CREAM OF MOREL SOUP

Use a soft-bristled mushroom brush to clear any debris from morels but don’t wash them. If using dried morels, soak them in warm water to rehydrate, they dry them off with a towel. You can substitute any wild mushroom in this recipe or use a mixture.

2 tablespoons (25 ml) butter

2 leeks, white part only, washed and chopped

2 shallots, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 pound (125 g) morel mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup white wine

2 cups (500 ml) chicken stock

bay leaf

1 branch fresh thyme

1/4 cup (50 ml) sweet or sour cream

salt and white pepper, to taste

Melt butter in a soup pot and sauté leek and shallots for 2 minutes, add garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Stir in mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes, until tender.

Add wine, stock bay leaf and thyme and bring to a boil. Cover pan and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes, then remove and discard bay leaf and thyme.

Cool soup slightly and puree in food processor or blender until relatively smooth.

Return the soup to the pot and heat just to boiling. Whisk in sweet or sour cream and heat through.  Season with salt and pepper. Serves 8.