My usual procedure for developing a new recipe is something like this:

1. Research
2. Draft Recipe
3. Experiment
4. Reflection
5. Revision, Revision, Revision

That's practically the bastard offspring of writing thesis papers and lab reports, somewhat amusing given my background. But I digress. My recipes can spend anywhere from several months to a year in this cycle before I'm reasonably satisfied. Rare is the occasion when I create a recipe, execute, and say, "Damn girl! That's good" in the first trial. But this is one of those rare moments in the first experiment where everything behaves as anticipated, yielding lip-smacking results and a very gleeful cook.

Ingredients
½ gallon smoked ham-vegetable stock
½ gallon water
½ cup leftover mushroom liquor*
6 ounces assorted dried mushrooms**
canola or vegetable oil
1½ lbs brown mushrooms
340 grams leeks, small dice
170 grams celery root, small dice
170 grams parsnip, small dice
1 sachet (white peppercorns, bay leaf, thyme, garlic, and parsley stems)
1.25 cups heavy cream
2.5 tsps Marsala wine
Blond roux
freshly ground white pepper, as needed
salt, as needed

*Mushroom "liquor" is completely optional, but I had some on hand, so I threw it in.

**For the dried mushrooms, I highly recommend Whole Food’s "Forest Mix," usually available in round squat plastic containers at or near the deli section. Not only is the forest mix much cheaper than anything you can obtain from a generic grocery store (e.g. Albertsons, Ralphs), but the forest mix also includes a wider variety of mushrooms; I can’t tell exactly how many kinds there are (the ingredients list is unhelpfully generic), but I saw wood ears, porcinis, and at least one other.

1. Transfer the stock and the water to a stockpot. Cover and bring the liquid to a rapid boil. Add all of the dried mushrooms and the liquor. Cover again, remove the stockpot from heat, and let the contents sit for 20 minutes.
2. Remove the rehydrated mushrooms from the stockpot with a slotted spoon. Reserve both the stock and the mushrooms for later use.
3. Place a small batch of fresh mushrooms in your food processor. Pulse until the mushrooms are very finely diced, but not pureed. Transfer to a large container, and continue to process the rest of the fresh mushrooms.
4. Sweat the white mirepoix (leeks, celery root, parsnip) and fresh mushrooms in a large, wide pan with a very light coating of vegetable or canola oil. After about 5-10 minutes, when a little liquid has collected at the bottom, transfer the sweated mixture to the stockpot. Add the sachet. Simmer the stockpot contents for 20-30 minutes, or until the parsnips and celery root are very tender.
5. Discard the sachet. Puree the contents of the stockpot and return to the pot.
6. Pulse the rehydrated mushrooms in the food processor (again, working in batches) until the mushrooms appear roughly chopped. Add to the stockpot with all of the cream
7. Place the stockpot over medium high heat. When the contents of the stockpot are again hot, stir in the marsala. Then thicken the consistency of the soup as desired with blond roux. Add salt or pepper, if needed.

The earthiness of the mushrooms is incredibly intense and the marsala-cream delights us with a sweeter, more substantive mouthful—both characteristic of a superior cream of mushroom soup. But the hidden player here is the smoked ham-vegetable stock; I can’t speak highly enough of the subtle depth lent to this dish by the undertones of smoked ham. I worried about the ham or the mirepoix possibly overriding the sometimes delicate flavor of mushroom, but my fears were unnecessary. I might back off a tiny little bit on the cream, but that’s just being fussy. This recipe is a joy. I could eat this soup as-is, but I’m bubbling with anticipation to taste the overall effect in my green bean casserole.

A word of caution to the wise: do not add salt until the very end, and only if salt is needed. In my experiment, the smoked ham-vegetable stock provided the perfect level of salt as-is.