Recipe Rursday: Goat Cheese Dumplings in a Wild Mushroom Sauce

Here's your better-late-than-never Recipe Rursday, on a Monday: A few months ago, Epicurious posted a recipe for Roasted Eggplant Soup with Goat Cheese Dumplings (made with wonton wrappers) that sounded delicious. But knowing that my last experiment with roasted eggplant for Baba Ghanouj was a terribly bitter mess, I forwent the eggplant soup for a mushroom soup. I made the goat cheese dumplings from recipe above and found a Wild Mushroom Soup where they could swim.

The dish did not come together exactly as planned. Next time, instead of using the mushroom soup as a soup, I'll use it as a sauce, since both it and the dumplings are fairly rich. I didn't get a picture of the final product (we had guests), but you get the idea. Goat cheese dumpling filling (below).
Goat Cheese Dumplings (straight from Epicurious)

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 shallots, chopped
• 1/2 cup (packed) soft fresh goat cheese (such as Montrachet), crumbled
• 1/2 cup chopped seeded plum tomatoes
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 20 wonton wrappers

Heat oil in small skillet over medium heat. Add shallots; sauté 4 minutes. Cool. Mix in cheese, tomatoes and basil. Season filling with salt and pepper. Place wrappers on work surface. Place 2 teaspoons filling in center. Brush edges with water. Fold wrappers diagonally in half; press edges to seal. (Can be made 4 hours ahead. Place in single layer on floured baking sheet. Cover; chill.)

Bring soup to simmer, thinning with more stock if necessary. Cook dumplings in pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 1 minute. Ladle soup into bowls. Using slotted spoon, place 2 dumplings atop soup in each bowl.

Wild Mushroom Soup (straight from Epicurious)

Note: my suggestion would be to make much less & use it as a sauce, not a soup for the dumplings.

• 3 1/2 cups canned low-salt chicken broth or vegetable broth (use veg.)
  
• 1 1/2-ounce package dried porcini mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onions (I used white onions)
  
• 12 ox assorted wild mushrooms (crimini & stemmed shiitake), sliced
• 8 ounces button mushrooms, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (or more..)
  
• 4 tsp chopped fresh thyme or 1 1/2 tsp. dried
• 4 tsp all purpose flour
• 2 cups low-fat (1%) milk (or a bit less, sour cream)
  

Bring broth to boil in medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add porcini mushrooms to saucepan; let soak until mushrooms soften, about 20 minutes. Drain, reserving broth but discarding any sediment in broth. Coarsely chop porcini mushrooms.

Heat olive oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add chopped onions and sauté until tender, about 7 minutes. Add wild mushrooms and button mushrooms and sauté until brown and tender, about 8 minutes. Add minced garlic, thyme, and porcini and sauté 2 minutes. Sprinkle flour over; stir 1 minute. Gradually whisk in reserved porcini soaking liquid and low-fat milk. Bring to boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to medium and boil gently until soup thickens slightly, about 12 minutes. Transfer 1 1/2 cups soup to blender and puree until smooth. Return to pot. Bring soup to simmer. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle soup into bowls and serve.