Monday: French Onion Soup
I always thought that French Onion Soup would take forever to do, but this recipe comes together pretty quickly. This makes a couple of bowls for you to enjoy.
The Recipe
INGREDIENTS
2 onions, sliced as thinly as you can
3 cups beef broth I use bouillion. I think it's beef
1 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 handful of bagged shredded white cheese. I get mine from AEON It tastes like it's got emmenthaler in it
1 teaspoon white sugar I actually use brown
1/2 cup white wine Drier is obviously better, but I used some boxed from my predecessor. with decent results
salt and pepper to taste
sliced bread I like the Slow Bread brand, it's fairly easy to find
DIRECTIONS
In a medium stock pot, heat beef broth over medium-high heat.
In the meantime, in a frying pan, add butter and oil and cook over medium-high heat. Once heated, add onions and stir, until onions are tender and transparent. Stir in sugar and cook until the onions start to brown.
Add onions to heated broth, stir and let simmer for 20 minutes.
Add wine and season with salt and pepper, simmer for 10 minutes.
Pour soup mixture into individual serving bowls and place a slice of bread on top, making sure bread gets well soaked. Place shredded cheese on top of bread and broil, 3 inches below heat, until cheese bubbles
The Notes
The butter adds flavor, but vegetable oil helps stabilize it; butter has a low smoke point, which is the temperature at which it starts to taste bad and gives off foul odors and smoke. All oils/fats have a smoke point, by the way. Reusing an oil (say, for frying) will lower its smoke point.
Shaving (really thinly slicing) the onions is important because you want to caramelize them to contribute to the flavor. It helps to use a heavy (seasoned cast iron or carbon steel is best) pan for this. Ideally, you'll convert some of the sugars in the onion to carbon, giving the onions a nice browned color where they contact the pan.
If you have residue that sticks to your pan, you can deglaze the pan to get it into your soup. Just scrape the onions out, then work a little broth over the surface of the pan and scrape it back into the rest of the broth.
You could probably substitute beer or apple cider vinegar for the wine if you prefer.
If you don't feel like fussing with the bread step, just stir some cheese into your bowl.
The Resource
Allrecipes.com
I discovered this site in 2001. It actually went through a site-wide face lift a few weeks ago, so now it's much nicer on the eyes. You'll find a wide range of recipes there, though if I had to pin it down, I'd say it's the sort of fare typical suburban parents might make. There's no shortage of recipes that call for condensed soup. It's definitely the everyday cook's website. I like it because it provides nutritional info and easy conversions. It also has nice feature articles to help you explore everything from biscotti, to crockpot cooking, to do-it-yourself sourdough starter. For those of you who want to feel festive, a site specialty is their annual Christmas Cookie Countdown, which starts on Dec 1st. Finally, if soup is your thing, I found an article on making 10 soups from one recipe.
2 comments | Read/post comments | Permalink