Onion Soup

Comments

  • Linda Bittle
    Linda Bittle Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭✭✭

    That sounds really good! I've never seen leeks at my local grocery store. Will have to look at growing some.

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    This is one of my absolute favorite dishes, but it is hard for me to write it down. My family came her in three waves of immigration from France, beginning with the Huguenots who settled around Charleston SC in the early 1700s.... but really, my Catholic French folks from the islands came to the "New World" about a century earlier, but they only came to the Carolinas after the slave revolts on the sugar plantations. Next, came the Acadians from Nova Scotia... a lot of them settled in French areas of the east coast rather than go all the way to Louisiana. But ALL of them loved French Onion Soup! As such, I did not inherit a set recipe. But, it all starts the way folks used to do things (and still should) when stocks and broths cooked for weeks on end, low and slow, at the back of the fire (when folks cooked with wood). Some times, stock would be passed down like a sourdough starter. So, my recipe would start by roasting bones and vegetable scraps, breaking the bones and adding everything to a pot of broth in which meat (mostly poultry) scraps and vegetables have been boiled (broth). Now, you could boil your bones down for hours or days, first... and maybe you would if you were cooking fancy and wanted your stock and broth to be very clear... but for home cooking, not much straining is required. Do skim off any foam that forms on top. Add cloves, a few bay leaves, black pepper, salt, parsley and thyme. Keep cooking it down until it is rich and wonderful. Now, Chop up about 5lbs of onions, fine (save the skins and ends for the next stock). Throw them in a pot, with plenty of butter and some olive oil (to keep the butter from burning) and a palm full of salt. Cook them low and slow until they caramelize. Add two whole cloves of peeled and chopped garlic, about a pound of peeled and chopped shallots (if you have them) and 2-4 chopped leeks (if you have them) or plenty of green onions and chives.... and a bunch of celery tops and cook them down, adding more butter or oil, if necessary. Cook everything down, seasoning to taste. Add about 1 cup to a half bottle of white wine and your stock/broth soup base. Simmer of an hour of 12. The soup should be dark brown and very rich. Serve in ramakins or small casserole dishes, heat proof soup bowls... whatever. Add a splash of sherry to each bowl. Top with bread that has been fried in butter, brushed with garlic and sprinkled parsley. On top of the bread (floating in the soup, but not getting soggy because it has a nice, browned coating of butter), grate good Swiss cheese (the real stuff). Put your serving dishes on a sheet pan and place them under the broiler of your oven and broil until the cheese is brown and bubbly. If you really take your time with this... using weeks work of vegetable and meat scraps in the broth and bones in the stock, browning everything at every step, not forgetting the cloves, herbs and wine...using rich butter... It is life changing.

  • silvertipgrizz
    silvertipgrizz Posts: 1,990 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @judsoncarroll4

    Your family history is an interesting read as I really enjoy reading about the lives of those who came before us and what they had to endure, their adventures, the way they cooked, hunted, helped each other and on and on.

    I appreciate the time you took in sharing this recipe and it truly sounds like one that I will enjoy making, eating and sharing for as long as I am able to cook. And then the people I will nag to cook it for me when I can't anymore lol.

    Thank you very much for this recipe and it's complex 'brewing' will surely be much better than what I posted.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @silvertipgrizz I have never used leeks in my French Onion soup but what a good idea! Will have to try that. I worked in a high-end restaurant once that had FO soup on the menu. Their recipe had a bit of grated apple added after the onions were carmelized and the stock added. Then a splash of brandy at the very end to finish it.

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    Oh, I almost forgot, you can make onion soup with ramps, too. The taste is rich and sweet, not too strong, but the smell would probably get rid of any unwanted house guests... or even neighbors!

  • silvertipgrizz
    silvertipgrizz Posts: 1,990 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @torey Did the apple make the taste any sweeter, or change in any other way?

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @silvertipgrizz Yes, it gave it a tangy sweetness. Really nice.

  • silvertipgrizz
    silvertipgrizz Posts: 1,990 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @judsoncarroll4 ramps as in onions or garlic or either? And what smell so strong would run people off?

  • silvertipgrizz
    silvertipgrizz Posts: 1,990 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @torey

    Don't you just LOVE adding fruit to meat and veggie dishes!!!

    I just love a roasted chicken on a bed of salad greens and makings, with some fruit or veggie vinegarette, and a good match for the meat fruit on the plate as well.

    Note, it would be slices or chunks of the roasted chicken on the salad plate and to the side, the fruit on the side for a very fresh and beautiful look, then the vinegarette, my fav's are raspberry, crnaberry and green pepper all on the side so as not to mush up the wonderful salad until it's ready for the 'through the lips and onto the tongue' time.🤣🤣🤣

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @silvertipgrizz Yes, I agree. I love making condiments out of fruit. Fruit chutney is one of my husband favourite things on almost anything. My favourites include fruit vinaigrettes on salads, especially with a bit of chicken or maybe some seafood (fresh salmon or prawns). Raspberry is lovely. Saskatoons are another favourite for vinaigrette.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    One of my favorite soups. Thanks for all the tips.

    Onion soup reminds me of my mother. When I was quite young we had a day out, off the hill and all to ourselves. We went to one of the local diners and had French Onion Soup and rice pudding. Both are still a favorite of mine. The diner was a favorite in the area and has been closed many years but its like yesterday in my memories.

    I have never had an onion soup quite as good as that since so I will have to give this recipe a try

  • RustBeltCowgirl
    RustBeltCowgirl Posts: 1,403 ✭✭✭✭✭

    French onion soup is my favorite "add" when I'm doing pot roast in the slow cooker or Instapot. The combination of the soup and juices are great to save as a base for beef soup.

  • Linda Bittle
    Linda Bittle Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2021

    I found this online today. I used my last onion at supper last night, so I guess I have to go shopping...

    There's a local lady who makes the best gruyere and fig sourdough bread...I bet that would be great to top it with. Using more cheese, of course.


  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Mary Linda Bittle, West Plains, Missouri I was thinking of soup for lunch or dinner and French Onion is one of my favorites. Than ks for sharing. You may have decided my dinner plans.

    When I was quite young I had a mom and daughter day out. We went to out favorite diner and it was the first time I had French Onion Soup and rice pudding. They are still one of my favorites and a true comfort food with memories attached.

  • SuperC
    SuperC Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭

    Oh my goodness, this sounds so delicious that I’ll have to try. As a child, I used to take a medium to large whole onion and eat it like an apple. Crunch crunch so delicious.

  • SuperC
    SuperC Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭

    I’ve seen lots, I mean, lots of cheese placed onto the single bread slice as the cheese is slightly pouring over the side of the bowl, and then served. Yum!

  • monica197
    monica197 Posts: 332 ✭✭✭✭✭

    with all the melty cheese on top - so yummy

    on a different onion soup note - I have saved some onion skins and am making some bone broth and added them to the crock pot too - I heard that they have a lot of nutrition them - I have never done this

    Has anyone else ever tried this?

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @monica197 Let us know how it turns out

  • monica197
    monica197 Posts: 332 ✭✭✭✭✭

    So I spooned up my bone broth today in which I used my onion skins. No unusual tastes or anything. No onion-y taste at all really in the broth. My bone broth was a very dark color today though.

    I found this info:

    I would do this again.

  • silvertipgrizz
    silvertipgrizz Posts: 1,990 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @monica197 I was trying to remember where I saw the don't throw away onion peels....Could be the article you posted above this..

    a friend of mine years ago used to use onion skins to dye fabric or yarn or both...can't remember now..