Use a mixture of wild mushrooms to make this luxurious mushroom soup really special. A wonderful starter at a dinner party. Sweat the shallots in the butter with a pinch of salt for 3 minutes.

You need a soup chicken - a larger ... then slice them when they're thawed. Chinese ham is heavily salted then air-dried, so it's dense and flavourful. For the stock, buy the cheaper scraps ...

Cultivated fresh mushrooms are available all year. Wild mushrooms are at their peak in autumn although some, such as morels, are found in spring. Dried mushrooms are available all year round.

This time of year, you might see fresh morel mushrooms pop up at farmers markets and on restaurant menus. But what exactly are these funky-looking fungi? Morels are wild mushrooms with distinctive ...