This is best made from wild mushrooms. Leo Skaja was the last of the great mushroom hunters from the Skaja family. He would bring shopping bags of his dried mushrooms and divide them among his neices and nephews. The aroma was fantastic and the dollar value worth hundreds. One of his unskilled nephews(John R - Jack Skaja) went off in pursuit of these tasty delights only to choose errantly. This resulted in a bad batch of mushroom soup and an emergency room visit by him and his unsuspecting neighbors.
Today we have many good varieties of dried mushrooms at the various supermarkets. Dried morels, shitakes, etc will do the job.
INGREDIENTS:
Dried mushrooms 2 cups
1 large onion diced
3 stalks celery
1 1/2 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup barley
beef soup base 3 tablespoons
2 tablespoon ketchup
salt and pepper'
corn starch 2-6 tablespoons
PROCESS:
Fill 8 quart pot halfway with water and bring to a simmer
Add mushrooms
Add barley, onion,celery and carrots
Simmer for 30 at leastminutes
Add 4 cups of water and soup base
Bring back to simmer and add salt, pepper and ketchup
Thicken to desired consistency by mixing corn starch into 1 cup of cold water. Use an appropriate amount of corn starch.
Bring back to simmer...soup will thicken and is redy to served