Cream of mushroom soup

I had to get rid of the mushrooms in my fridge and the other ingredients leftover from my pumpkin soup so I made this :) Oh and it's freezing and rainy and cold here in Melbourne, so nice hot soup goes down well~ 1. Dice mushrooms into chunky cubes. Vary the sizes for better texture. Reserve one well-formed mushroom and slice that thinly. 2. Finely mince onions and garlic. 3. In a heavy pot fry onions and garlic till golden and fragrant. Don't let it get brown because then the onion flavour becomes too strong and will overpower the mushrooms. Remove from pan. 4. In the same pan heat up olive oil and a good knob of butter. Fry diced mushrooms till nicely brown and cooked. Season with salt and pepper. Remove pan from heat and remove mushrooms from pan. 5. Chuck the sliced mushroom in and toss it around for a bit in the juices. The pan should still be hot so it will cook itself through. Leave it in the pan while you... 6. Blend 2/3 of the diced mushrooms with the fried onions and garlic and the milk. Try to get it as smooth as possible. 7. Pour mixture back into pot. Add cream, a knob of butter, about 1 cup of water and 1 tbs of oyster sauce. Add the remaining 1/3 of diced mushrooms. Stir thoroughly and simmer for about 10 minutes. 8. Ladle into warmed soup plates. Garnish with reserved sliced mushrooms, slivered almonds and paprika oil (olive oil with paprika in a 2:3 ratio). I didn't have any parsely but some chopped up parsely would have gone nicely on top too. Goes well with toasted buns. I like to cut it in half, drizzle oil all over the cut surface and press it onto a hot griddle. After toasted and brown flip over and brown the other sides. Crisp and fragrant. Yum.