March 12, 2013 Dinner – French Onion Soup

March 12, 2013 Dinner – French Onion Soup

I did not have to meditate tonight, so when Davida Simon, no relation, called and needed to come by, I said sure.

I was cooking a stock with ½ lb. PPI beef steak and a mirepoix made by dicing 1/2onion, 1 stalk of celery and 1 carrot in a 4 quart pot filled with water with 2 beef bouillon cubes.

I used the recipe from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1.

I quartered each onion, then made an incision to almost the root and sliced 5 cups of thin slices of onions.  I then sautéed the onions in three Tbsp. of the fresh butter Suzette’s kitchen at the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery made with 1 Tbsp. of olive oil (Trader Joe’s California extra virgin, $5.99) covered for 15 minutes and uncovered for 30 minutes.  Then I transferred the onions to a heavy enameled pot and added 1 tsp. salt and ¼ tsp. sugar and then stirred in 3 Tbsp. of flour and cooked that for about 3 minutes to cook the flour.

 

Davida assisted (the picture is of her stirring the onions and flour mixture) and we talked and cooked.  Davida said she always throws everything into the soup, so after straining the vegetables and removing the bones and pouring the stock into the sautéed onions I threw all of the cooked vegetables back into the soup.

 

After adding the stock, which seemed to be about 2 quarts, I added ½ cup of white wine and a dash of white vermouth and bit of French sea salt and dash of ground white pepper and then diced the two slices of PPI tenderloin from Monday evening's meal at Zinc and put that into the soup.

While the soup was simmering for the 30 to 40 minutes the recipe called for Suzette arrived, which was great because she usually assembles the soup.  She said to get the brown ceramic French soup crocks.  Then I grated about 2 cups of Mexican cheese and sliced 8 slices of French sourdough whole wheat bread made by Bosque Bakery and given to me because it was a day old.  I put the bread on a cookie sheet and brushed the bread with more of the Trader Joe’s olive oil and Suzette put the bread into a 400˚ oven for about ten to 15 minutes until they became hardened to make the Croûtes shown in the first suggested garnish.

I then finished the soup by adding about 3 Tbsp. of cognac and fetched a bottle of Valreas Cotes du Rhone from the basement and opened it.

Suzette then placed the bowls on a cookie sheet and filled the bowls with soup and laid a croute (baked piece of bread) on each, except Davida’s who is not eating bread, and garnished each bowl with cheese and we slid the bowls into the 350˚ oven.

 

In about fifteen minutes the cheese started to brown on the edges and Suzette said the dish was ready so I called Willy and we all ate a light but surprisingly filling dinner of French Onion Soup.

Bon Appétit