2 soups for National Soup Month: 1. Mushroom Medley

Did you know this was National Soup Month? No, neither did I. But how serendipitous is that; we have been looking at soups for the past few days, so here are a couple more to wrap things up soup-wise.

Mushroom-medley soup
Almost any combination of mushrooms will do, but of course I like my 3-mushroom mix (Stonebow Inn cookbook), but you choose.

This is a processor recipe, but chop the ingredients by hand if you prefer not to use a processor for that purpose.
1 pound mushrooms, wiped clean and stemmed (reserve stems)
2 T olive oil
2 T unsalted butter
1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped
2 sprigs fresh lemon thyme or 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. grated nutmeg
3 cups beef broth
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
3 large egg yolks

Chop the mushroom caps in the processor, coarsely. Heat the olive oil and butter in a saucepan; cook the mushroom caps for 2 minutes; chop the mushroom stems and onions, and add them to the pan with the thyme and nutmeg. Cook until the mushroom juice has evaporated and the vegetables are lightly browned. Add the beef broth, salt and pepper; adjust the heat so the mixture bubbles gently, cover and simmer until the mushrooms are very soft, around 15 minutes.
Pour the mixture through a large fine sieve set over a heatproof bowl. Place the solids in the food processor or in batches in a blender and puree, stopping and scraping down the mixture with a spatula a couple of times. Puree until smooth. Scoop the mixture into the saucepan and add the liquid back in. Set the pan over moderate heat; quickly whisk the cream with the egg yolks, whisk in a little of the hot soup and then stir this mix back into the pan. Cook, stirring constantly, until the soup is lightly thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Do not allow the soup to boil or it may curdle. Adjust the seasoning before serving.