Onion Soup Gratinee

Onion Soup Gratinee

Much of the credit for what we know today as onion soup we can give credit to Julia Child. If you followed Julia when she was featured on TV weekly shows, she wasted nothing but turned it into such tasty dishes. French Onion Soup was her creation.

French Onion Soup has to be on the top of my list for favorite soups. This recipe by Julia Childtakes a little longer than many simpler recipes, but it’s well worth the time spent. So get out your apron, and prepare to indulge in a classic French favorite.

Ingredients:

5-6 Cups Yellow Onions, sliced thin
1/2 Yellow Onion, raw
4 tablespoons Olive Oil, 

About 8 slices French Bread,
2-3 tablespoons Cogniac, (optional)
4 ounces Parmesan Cheese,
12 ounces Swiss Cheese, Grated,
Salt and Pepper
1/2 teaspoon Sage, Ground,
1 Bay Leaf,
1 cup White Wine,
6 cups Beef Stock,
3 tablespoons Flour
1/2 teaspoon Sugar,
2 tablespoons Butter,
1 tablespoon Cooking Oil,

Directions:
Heat a heavy, oven-safe, stock pot over medium-low heat and add the cooking oil once the pot is hot. Melt the butter into the hot oil.  Stir the sliced onions into the oil/butter mix, ensuring they are evenly coated. Cover the stock pot and cook for around 20 minutes checking to make sure they aren’t burning. Onions should be clear and very tender once finished. Turn up the heat to medium-high, and add the sugar and 1tsp salt. Continue cooking while stirring until onions are thoroughly browned (caramelized).

Reduce heat to medium-low and stir in 3 Tbsp flour. Cook 2-3 minutes until flour forms a thick paste (add more butter if needed).  Stir in 1 cup of beef stock, and stir heavily for a couple seconds.

Add the rest of the stock, wine, sage, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F. Drizzle both sides of french bread slices with olive oil, and place on a baking sheet. Cook the bread in the oven for 15 minutes on each side.

Red Beans And Rice

Red Beans And Rice 

From Rancho Gordo Beans Co.

It’s easy to get obsessed about New Orleans Red Beans and Rice. It’s a delicious dish with a mythic story. I’ve had many great versions, and even more bad ones.

The iconic New Orleans dish was made to be slow cooked on a Monday, using Sunday night’s ham bone. It needs to be a somewhat easy, one pot dish to cook in the background as you tend to the chore of washing on Monday. The dish was born out of economy, both for time and the cost of ingredients. It needs to be fabulous.

Most traditional recipes will call for the ham bone and sometimes more ham, cubed. Virtually all of them call for andouille sausage, a smoked, coarse-grind sausage. Hot links, even Louisiana hot links, are not the same thing, even though they’re smoked. They’re made with a finer grind and the texture is wrong. Andouille are smoked, and therefore already cooked, so the long slow cooking with the beans is for adding flavor, not to cook the sausage. They aren’t subtle.

The spice level is all over the map. I love my heat but I prefer it at the end in the form of a vinegary hot sauce like Tabasco, Crystal or Louisiana. In fact, even though it’s added by each diner as the dish is being served, I would include hot sauce as another essential part of the dish.
Personally, my biggest challenge was the broth. How soupy? How thin? In the end, I thought of it more as gravy. It should be thin enough to coat each grain of rice and dense enough to cling. A lot of cooks get this perfect texture by mashing some of the beans and then mixing them back into the pot. I prefer even longer cooking. You can do this in a few hours but my preference is to keep it low and let it go most of the day, mostly undisturbed.

We have to mention the beans, of course. Traditionally one uses a Louisiana brand of red kidney beans. They are great. I, of course, needed to experiment with our Domingo Rojo red beans. I think the Domingo Rojo are perfect for this dish. They hold their shape well, even after hours of cooking and as they break down, they release the dreamiest of sauces, perfect for caressing the white rice. You can cook red beans and rice in a couple of hours with a steady simmer. I prefer to start in the morning and let the pot evolve on a low heat, almost neglected.

I am biased, naturally, but when you have good heirlooms, a ham hock and ham are almost too much and unwanted. I say this as a lover of pork. The sausage with the beans is just about perfection. Save the ham bone for a pea soup or some other project.

There is a magical moment when it’s done. You should be able to taste a spoonful of the broth and if you’re anything like me, you realize you’re not going to be able to stop with one small taste. It’s so good!If you want to dig deeper, I can suggest Donald Link’s Down South and Kim Severson’s version (inspired by Pableaux Johnson) in the New York Times.

Ingredients:
1 pound Rancho Gordo Domingo Rojo beans, uncooked
2 tablespoons oil
1 to 1 1/2  pounds Andouille sausage, cut into thick slices
2 yellow onions, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 rib celery, sliced
2 green bell peppers, seeds and pith removed, chopped
4 bay leaves
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, ground
1 tablespoon dried thyme
Pepper
Salt
1 tablespoon Creole mustard (or coarse grain mustard
Vinegary hot sauce like Louisiana, Crystal or Tabasco, for serving
White, long grain rice, cooked, for serving

Directions:
In a large pot, such as an enameled cast iron dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat and brown the sausage slices, stirring occasionally, about 6 minutes. 

Remove and reserve the sausage. Add the onion, garlic, bell pepper and celery and saute until soft, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.

Add the dry beans, bay leaves, thyme, cayenne and enough water to cover by about 2 inches. Bring to a strong boil and continue boiling for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to low to medium low, so that the beans are cooking with a gentle simmer.

Once the beans have started to soften but not cooked fully, just over an hour, add the reserved sausage to the beans along with the mustard. Continue to cook until the beans are soft. 

Add more water as needed. If you’re pressed for time, once the beans are cooked, you mash some against the side of pot with a wooden spoon to thicken the liquid, or continue cooking until the liquid is more like a thick gravy than a thin soup.

Check for seasoning and salt and pepper to taste. Serve with plain rice and bottles of hot sauce.

Best Brothy White Beans

Best Brothy White Beans

These are the best brothy white beans! Turn a pound of dry white beans into a tender, savory, all-purpose vegan protein. This is a one-pot recipe that's versatile, simple to make, and freezer-friendly. 

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 45 minutes

Soaking time for beans 8 hours

Total Time 9 hours 55 minutes

Servings 8 servings

Author Gena Hamshaw

Ingredients
1 lb dry white beans (cannellini, Great Northern, or navy)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 white or yellow onions (or 1 very large), chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped or very thinly sliced
6 cups vegetable broth
2 bay leaves
A few sprigs each fresh rosemary and fresh thyme, tied together with twine to make a small herb bouquet
2 teaspoons kosher salt (you can adjust to to one teaspoon if your broth is salty, but this recipe works well with a good amount of salt!)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice, optional  

Directions

Soak your beans overnight, or use the quick soak method (submerge beans in enough water to cover them by 2 inches and a teaspoon salt, bring to a boil, let sit for 1 hour). Drain beans.

Heat your oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the onion. Sauté for four minutes, stirring frequently. Add the garlic and sauté for another two minutes, stirring constantly.

Add the beans, broth, bay leaves, herbs, and salt to the pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cook, covered, for 1 hour. Remove the lid to the pot and cook for another 30-45 minutes, or until the beans are quite tender. 

Remove the bay leaves from the pot. Taste and add freshly ground pepper to taste, along with any additional salt you might like. If you like, you can add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to the pot, or you can squeeze it over the beans when you serve them.

Serve the beans however you'd like to, or store/freeze for later use.

 

Mushroom Wellington ~ Vegan

Mushroom Wellington

Ingredients:
Mushroom Filling
4 large portobello mushrooms, each about 3 inches wide (8 to 10 ounces total)
½ cup plus 5 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and black pepper
2 pounds mixed mushrooms, such as shiitake, oyster and cremini
4 shallots, finely chopped (about 1 packed cup)
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
⅓ cup port, or 1 to 2 tablespoons good-quality aged balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
1 cup finely chopped toasted walnuts (about 4 ounces)
Ice, for cooling
Onions:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 medium yellow onions (about 1 pound), peeled and cut into 1/4-inch rounds
¾ teaspoon light or dark brown sugar
1 ¼ teaspoons kosher salt
¾ teaspoon black pepper
1 cup apple cider or apple juice
1 tablespoon good-quality aged balsamic vinegar (optional)
For Assembling
All-purpose flour, for dusting
1 (14-ounce) package puff pastry
1 large egg, beaten
Port Reduction:  optional
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large shallot, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
1 ½ cups good-quality port
1 ½ cups vegetable stock
3 fresh thyme sprigs
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Kosher salt and black pepper

 Directions:

Wipe the portobello mushrooms clean using barely moistened paper towels. Remove the stems, then slice off the excess mushroom rim that curls over the gills. (You are making sure the stem side has a flat surface so it will sear properly.) Reserve the stems and scraps for use in Step 2. Brush the portobello mushroom caps on both sides with 3 tablespoons olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large (12-inch) nonstick skillet over medium-high and cook the mushrooms, gill-side down, until caramelized, 4 to 5 minutes, then flip and cook until softened, about 4 more minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, gill-side down, to cool.

Prepare the mushroom filling: Separate and reserve any mushroom stems. Roughly chop about two-thirds of the mixed mushrooms, then working in batches, transfer the roughly chopped mushrooms to a food processor and pulse until chopped into small pieces. (They should range from 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch in size.) Transfer the chopped mushrooms to a large bowl. By hand, finely chop the remaining mixed mushrooms and stems and the reserved portobello mushroom stems and trimmings into 1/4-inch pieces; add them to the large bowl. 

(Chopping most of the mixed mushrooms in the food processor will save you some time, but you’ll want to chop some by hand for texture.)
Prepare an ice bath in a large bowl. (You’ll use this to quickly cool the cooked mushrooms in Step 4. If preparing in advance, you can simply let the mixture cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.) Wipe out the skillet. Working in two batches, warm 1/4 cup olive oil over medium-high heat. Add about half the mushrooms, shallots, garlic and rosemary, and season lightly with salt and generously with pepper. (You’ll add soy sauce later, so avoid overseasoning at this stage.) 

Cook, stirring occasionally, until caramelized and tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl and repeat with the remaining 1/4 cup oil and the remaining mushrooms, shallots, garlic and rosemary.
Once the second batch of chopped mushrooms is cooked and caramelized, return the first batch to the skillet. Add the port, soy sauce and thyme leaves and cook over medium-high, stirring occasionally, until the liquid evaporates, 3 to 5 minutes. (If using balsamic vinegar instead of port, reduce the cook time to 1 to 2 minutes.) Transfer the mushroom mixture back to the medium bowl and stir in the walnuts. Set the bowl over the prepared ice bath to cool, stirring occasionally, at least 20 minutes.

Prepare the cider-caramelized onions: Wipe out the skillet, then melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions, sprinkle with the sugar, salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until starting to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the cider and cook, stirring every few minutes, until the liquid evaporates and the onions are caramelized, about 15 minutes. Stir in the vinegar, if using, then transfer to a bowl to cool.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place a large piece of parchment paper on your work surface and lightly dust it with flour. Unfold your thawed puff pastry and set it on the parchment. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the pastry out into a 13-by-16-inch rectangle. 

Transfer the parchment paper and puff pastry to a large sheet pan. Rotate the sheet pan, if needed, so that one of the 16-inch sides is closest to you. Arrange half the cooked mushroom mixture in a strip in the center of the puff pastry (it should be about 4-by-10 inches), leaving a 1½-inch border at the ends. 

Arrange the caramelized onions in a single, 3-inch-wide strip on top of the mushroom mixture, leaving about ½ inch of the mushrooms exposed on both sides. Lay the portobello mushrooms on top of the onions in a single line, stem-side down. (If the portobellos are too large to all fit in a row, square off edges so the cut sides lay snugly without overlapping.) Spoon the remaining mushroom mixture on top of the filling, covering the portobello mushrooms, then gently pack the mushroom mixture to form an even layer on top. (You can shape this the same way you might shape a freeform meatloaf.)

To assemble, lift one side of the puff pastry over the mushroom filling to almost completely cover it. Brush the surface of the puff pastry covering the mushrooms with the beaten egg. Lift the remaining puff pastry flap over the egg-washed puff pastry, gently stretching it if need be to create a second layer of puff pastry on top, then gently press the top layer of pastry onto the lower layer using your fingertips to seal. Brush the insides of the short ends of the puff pastry and press to seal. Trim any parchment paper that extends beyond the sheet pan.

Brush the exposed puff pastry on top with the remaining beaten egg. Decorate the top of the puff pastry as you like: Create a cross-hatch pattern by gently slicing through only the top layer of puff pastry in parallel lines, then cutting parallel lines in another direction. (Apply very little pressure, as you only want to cut through the top layer of puff pastry, not the second layer.) You can also slice small decorative vents in the puff pastry (be sure to slice all the way through both layers of puff pastry), or top with additional strips or shapes made from egg-washed puff pastry.

Transfer to the middle rack in the oven and bake until puff pastry is deep golden and flaky, 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool slightly on the baking sheet, about 10 minutes.

While the Wellington bakes, prepare the optional port reduction: In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium. Add the shallot, garlic and peppercorns, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the port, stock and thyme, and cook over medium-high until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 25 to 30 minutes. Strain the sauce, discarding the solids. (You should have about 1/2 cup sauce.) Cover and set aside until ready to serve. When ready to serve, warm the sauce over medium. Once warmed, whisk in the butter, season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

To serve the mushroom Wellington, cut it crosswise into 8 even slabs. (Each slab will include a pretty cross-section showcasing the halved portobello mushroom in the center; this is considered the presentation side.) Serve each piece presentation-side up. Pass with port reduction for drizzling on top.

Ale-Braised Cheese Dip With Caramelized Onions And Maple Bacon

Ale-Braised Cheddar Cheese Dip With 

Caramelized Onions And Maple Bacon

If desired, make dip ahead and reheat later on the grill. Leftovers? Spread onto toasted bread and heat until melted under a broiler, or melt spoonfuls over grilled burgers, adding additional green onions, chives or parsley for topping.

Ingredients:

2 medium yellow onions
2 tsp vegetable oil
2 cups grated cheddar cheese (or about (7 1/2 oz.)  
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
1½ cups Lagered Ale
1 tsp Dijon mustard
½ cup white cheese curds, finely chopped*4 smoked bacon slices, cooked and finely crumbled
2 green onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp maple syrup

*If cheese curds are not available in your stores, a suggested replacement is Monterey Jack.

1 Peel onions and cut into ¼-inch slices.

2 Heat oil in a 9-inch cast iron or heavy-bottom skillet on medium heat; add onions, stir to coat in oil, and cover. Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are evenly browned and softened. In a large bowl, combine cheddar, flour and cayenne.

3 Add ale and Dijon to onion in skillet, stirring to heat through. Stir half the cheese mixture gradually into the warmed ale; stir until cheese is melted but not boiling. Add remaining cheese mixture and cheese curds; continue stirring until melted, with a few visible chunks of curd remaining. Remove from heat. 

(Recipe can be prepared ahead to this point and reheated on the sturdy upper shelf of a preheated BBQ grill, stirring occasionally for 8 to 10 minutes or until just melted.)

To serve, sprinkle top of cheese mixture in skillet with bacon and green onion; drizzle with maple syrup. Place hot skillet onto a large cutting board, along with thick slices of grainy bread, blanched asparagus, broccoli and sweet pepper strips for dipping.

Serves 8 to 10, but recipe halves easily

Asparagus Soup with Lemon and Parmesan

                                                     

                                Asparagus Soup with Lemon and Parmesan

This asparagus soup tastes rich, yet it's made without heavy cream – just veggies, broth, and a bit of Parmesan cheese puréed to silky perfection.  Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:

 2 bunches asparagus (about 2¼ pounds/1 kg), bottom ends trimmed
 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
 2 medium yellow onions, chopped
 3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
 1 teaspoon salt
 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, from one lemon
 1/2 cup shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano
 Handful fresh herbs, such as thyme, dill or basil (optional, for garnish) 
Directions
Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until soft and translucent, about 8 minutes. Do not brown; reduce the heat if necessary.In the meantime, cut the tips off of one bunch of the asparagus and set aside (you'll use those for a garnish). Cut the remaining spears and the other bunch of asparagus into ½-inch (13-mm) pieces.

Add the chopped asparagus to the pot (minus the reserved tips), along with the chicken broth, 1 teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Bring to a boil, then cover and turn the heat down to low. Simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are very tender.

Meanwhile, bring a small pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the reserved asparagus tips for a few minutes, or until tender-crisp. Drain the tips and then place them in a bowl of ice water to "shock" them—this stops the cooking process and preserves their bright green color. Once the tips are cool, drain them and set aside.

Purée the soup with an immersion blender until completely smooth. (Alternatively, use a standard blender to purée the soup in batches, then return the soup to the pot.) Bring the soup back to a simmer and stir in the lemon juice and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary. To thicken the soup, allow it to simmer, uncovered, until the desired consistency is reached.

Ladle the soup into bowls, then top each bowl with asparagus tips, Parmigiano-Reggiano, herbs (if using), and freshly ground black pepper.  Serves 4 to 6