Soup on Sundays: French Onion

A number of years ago a friend took us out to dinner at a local French restaurant.  It is located in a small house in a cute shopping district.  From the outside, the restaurant didn't look like much, but we are still talking about that meal.

I was too chicken to order the frog legs or Escargot, but Tim had both and said that they were delicious.  I decided to start with the French Onion soup, and when I placed my order I asked the waiter if they used beef or veal broth.  The look on his face was one of horror.  I was told that they made their soup the traditional way, with water.  I don't think I am exaggerating when I say that was the best, by far, French Onion soup that I ever had.

When I decided to try my hand at making it, I searched for a long time to find a traditional recipe.  You know how many "traditional" French Onion soups use beef broth?  Most of them.  It wasn't until I came across Michael Ruhlman's version that I finally found what I was looking for.

I made a couple of changes this last time I made it and it turned out terrific.  I didn't have sherry or an open bottle of wine, so I skipped both and just used red wine vinegar instead.  I hate fighting with a bowl size piece of bread in my soup, so I put made large croutons and used those along with the cheese I had on hand, an Irish cheddar.  Yum!

The big secret to this soup, though, is time.  To get the dark, sweet caramelization of the onions, it is going to a couple of hours of slow cooking.

Enjoy!

Traditional French Onion Soup

1 tablespoon butter

7 or 8 Spanish onions, thinly sliced
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Large croutons
Red wine vinegar
1/2 to 3/4 pound grated

In a large pot over medium heat melt the butter.  Add the onions, sprinkle with 2 teaspoons salt, cover, and cook until the onions have heated through and started to steam.  Uncover, reduce the heat to low, and cook, stirring occasionally.  Season with several grinds of pepper.

When the onions have completely cooked down, the water has cooked off, and the onions have turned amber, add 6 cups of water.  Raise the heat to high and bring the soup to a simmer, then reduce the heat to low.  Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. If the soup is too sweet, add some vinegar.

Portion the soup into bowls, float the bread on top, cover with the cheese, and broil/grill until the cheese is melted and nicely browned.  Serve immediately.

AMDG

Soup-er Sunday: Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

It's no secret that I need to lose a few (or more) pounds.  It isn't going as fast as I would like it to, but I think I am making better food choices.  While we are not eating true Paleo/Whole30/Gluten-free, I like to check out the various web sites and blogs for new recipes.  A great site is Paleo Leap.  The food pictured looks great and is mostly rather simple to make.

 

I found a soup recipe that I had wanted to make for a while.  I didn't have a few ingredients so I improvised and we loved the results.  This is a definite keeper of a recipe.

 

Back in December, Stephanie recommended Penzey's spices as one of the twenty gifts she likes to give and/or receive.  It turns out that there is a Penzey's store not all that far from us and when we were nearby we stopped in.  Wow!  I'm right there with her, I'm not going back to grocery store spices.  Just the difference in the aroma of these is so, so much better.  I can't help but think that the quality of the spices really boosted this soup's flavor.  Yum!

  

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

 

1 good sized cooked chicken, shredded

1 can coconut milk

6 cups chicken broth

½ cup orange juice

3 medium carrots, shredded

2 stalks celery, finely diced

½ large sweet onion, finely diced

½ cup brown rice, cooked

½ tsp. curry powder

½ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. ginger

½ tsp. chili powder

½ tsp. paprika

½ tsp. salt

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

 

Sauté onion and celery until softened.  Add the chicken broth, coconut milk, orange juice, seasonings, carrots and chicken pieces.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer, covered, for 15 minutes or until the carrots are getting slightly tender.

 

 Enjoy!

 

AMDG

Soup-er Sunday: Tomato Bisque

My aunt and uncle used to live in western North Carolina.  It is such a beautiful area.  You could see the Appalachian Trail from their front porch.  Except for the almost eleven hour drive, we loved to visit them there. 

On a couple of our trips we went white water rafting on the Nantahala River.  In a guided, eight person raft, it was great fun.  In a double ducky, however, it was downright scary!  Let's just say the ducky trip didn't end quite as well as the guided one.

After we finally dried off, we needed to warm up so we stopped at a local restaurant along the river for lunch.  We ordered the soup of the day to eat with our sandwiches.  I don't have a clue what the sandwiches were, but the soup, a creamy tomato bisque, was so good we each ordered seconds!

When we got home from that trip I quickly got online on began searching for the closest approximation of that soup.  After several iterations, and a few tweaks, this is what I came up with. 

Italian Tomato Bisque

Ingredients:
2 pounds Roma Tomatoes                      
1 medium onion -- sliced thin
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 whole cloves                                     
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons fresh basil -- chopped fine
½ pint half-and-half
1 cup milk
Directions:
Blanch the tomatoes until skin comes loose, then skin, seed, and chop coarsely.  (When I don't have good, homegrown tomatoes, I cheat here and use a quart of tomato sauce that I canned the previous summer)

Sauté onion in butter a few minutes, then add all ingredients except the milk and cream. Simmer for about 25 minutes, and remove the cloves. Transfer to a blender or food processor, and puree. Add half-and-half, and the milk.  Cook until warmed through.

Enjoy!

AMDG

Soup-er Sunday: Chorizo Sweet Potato

I love to cook and I love to feed people.  I have been wanting to write more.  A friend once told me that if you want to be a writer, you need to write, regularly.  So, I am going to try to put the writing and the cooking together and, on Sundays, post my favorite thing to make: soup.

There is nothing like a good bowl of soup.  Now that the weather has turned colder it is a meal I frequently make.  I have found that the best soups are usually fairly simple to make.  When they start getting complicated, they lose my interest and oftentimes just aren't all that good.

There are so many good recipes out there that we never have to have the same thing twice.  When the soup turns out especially good, like this one did, it goes in my personal cookbook.

I usually can read a recipe and determine if it something we are going to like.  I cannibalized several recipes I found online to get this version.  Most of the ones I found were heavy-handed in adding seasonings.  If you can find a good Chorizo, you will have plenty of flavor already there.

Chorizo Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients:
1 pound Chorizo sausage
6-8 cups of chicken stock
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and dices
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 medium onion, diced
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Place sweet potatoes in large pot and cover with chicken broth. Bring to a rolling boil and then turn temperature down to gentle simmer.  Cook until sweet potatoes are soft when pricked with a fork.




In a separate pan, brown sausage, breaking it up into small pieces as it cooks.

Add carrots, celery and onion to sausage and cook until slightly softened.

 Using an immersion blender, puree potatoes to desired consistency.  I left the mixture just a little bit chunky.  Add sausage mixture.  Season with salt and pepper as needed.  Simmer on low 20-30 minutes.

Enjoy!








I used homemade chicken stock so I can safely say that this is gluten free.  If using store bought broth, check the package.

AMDG