Creamy Soup of Field Mushrooms

I'm still a little obsessed with my immersion blender.  Soup is so easy to make now! I've tried a few recipes for cream of mushroom soup but this one is the best I've made so far.  It showcases the flavor of the mushrooms without a lot of other ingredients to get in the way.  This recipe calls for a ton of portobello mushrooms.  It's relatively easy too.  I think it would freeze well for use in cream cheese chicken. This soup made a nice light meal.  I served it with some bruschetta. A small salad would work too. To use porcini mushrooms as a garnish, soak them in warm water until they're soft, about 20 minutes.

The bruschetta is from Wegman's.  Shhh, don't tell!

I changed two things from the original recipe.  First, I started my chicken stock and potato mixture simmering before I did everything else because my experience has been that potatoes take a while to soften up.  Second, the original recipe had a two-step blending process where first the soup was transferred to a regular blender and then finished in the pan with the immersion blender to make the texture more foamy. I skipped the blender step entirely and just used my immersion blender to save time.

Creamy Soup of Field Mushrooms
From Cooking with Curtis
Serves 2 for a main dish or 4 as an appetizer

Ingredients
2 shallots, finely sliced
1 leek, white part only, thinly sliced
3 Tbsp butter
1 2/3 lb portobello mushrooms
4 cups chicken stock
3 1/5 ounces potato, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cups heavy cream
1 3/4 cups milk (I used 1%)
porcini mushrooms and chervil sprigs for garnish (I used dried chervil)


Method
1) Place the chicken stock and potato slices in a pot and simmer until the potato is soft. This will take at least 10 minutes. 
2) Melt the butter in a large saucepan (it will eventually need to hold all the ingredients).  Sweat the shallots and leeks for 2 minutes.  Then add the mushrooms and cook for another 10 minutes until most of the mushrooms' moisture has evaporated.
3) Once the potato is soft, add the potato and chicken stock mixture to the pan containing the mushrooms and bring to a rapid boil. Add the cream and milk and gently simmer for 10 minutes. Do not allow it to boil.
4) Use an immersion blender to blend the soup until it's uniformly creamy.
5) Serve in bowls and garnish with chervil and porcini mushrooms.