In 2014, I wrote:
“Until recently, I’ve never been really happy with using water instead of stock for the vegetarian soups; vegetable stock powder invariably gives a celery flavour to the whole soup, and to be honest, even when I’ve made vegetable stock, I’ve never been really happy with it.“
“However, I think I’ve found the answer, at least for mushroom soups. Dried Porcini absolutely transforms them. I’d never bothered with it until now because of the price. But recently I’ve been looking for things that help to lower my calorie intake and have been surprised; it’s not always the lower-calorie items that are best. For example, you get far more ‘bang for your buck’ from, say, high-calorie Stilton than a reduced-calorie cheese. Just try it: tiny pieces of Stilton will add flavour, whereas you’d need double the amount of the lower-calorie product. Well, when I was thinking along these lines, I also realised that the same applies to using very small amounts of expensive items, and there’s no doubt that Porcini is expensive: £60 – £80 per kilo, but if you only use 10 g it’s only 60p, or about 10p per bowl.“
That’s as true now as it was then; well, except that the price is £110 – £125 a kilo now!
