Saturday, October 18, 2014

October 17, 2014 French Onion Soup

We grilled two steaks last night so we would have PPI steak.  We will use some of it for breakfast burritos, but tonight we made French onion soup.

I used the Julia Child recipe (Sort of sounds like quoting from the Holy Bible):

5 cups of sliced onion
2 quarts of beef stock

Saute the onions in 3 Tbsp. of butter and 1 Tbsp. of olive oil

Sprinkle with 3 Tbsp. of flour and cook 3 minutes and then add the 2 quarts of beef stock, ½ cup of white wine or dry vermouth and salt and pepper to taste and cook for an additional 1/2 hour.

We made beef stock with the PPI steak and bones, but it was not rich enough so we added 1 ½ cubes of beef bouillon to enrich the beef stock in an additional three cups of water.

I think we had perhaps 6 cups of onions so the extra liquid was fine. We also simmered the soup for 1 1/2 hours to soften the onions.

The recipe calls for adding 3 Tbsp. of cognac, but we did not add that.

Suzette baked soup in the typical brown ceramic French onion soup bowls oven with a slice of French Baguette floating on the top covered with Swiss cheese slices to melt the cheese.

Voila.  We loved the simple meal.  The soup was so delicious that I refilled my bowl several times.   

We drank PPI wines, a French Beaujolais Villages (100% Grenache, $5.99 at Trader Joe’s) and some Spanish La Granja 50% Tempranillo and 50% Grenache.  The light fruity red wines were lovely with the soup and the richness of the soup masked the wines' lack of elegance.  A true peasant's feast. 

After dinner we soaked for the first time in our new hot tub that was fitted with new jets and head rests today.  

The therapeutic effect of the water was so relaxing that we went to bed almost immediately after soaking.


Bon Appétit

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