The recipe looked pretty straightforward and I thought it would go without a hitch. I had trouble from the very start but managed to work my way through the hurdles. If you know About Me, you're aware that I'll tell it to you straight, the good, the bad and the ugly.
Onion Soup Les Halles
adapted from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook
recipe in it's original entirety can be found here
8 large onions, thinly sliced
2 oz port
2 oz balsamic vinegar
2 qts dark chicken stock
4 oz slab bacon, cut in ½-inch cubes
salt and pepper
baguette croutons (sliced and toasted in the oven with a little olive oil)
grated Gruyere cheese, up to 12 oz
In the large pot, heat the butter over medium heat until it is melted and begins to brown.
In the large pot, heat the butter over medium heat until it is melted and begins to brown.
Three minutes after melting, the butter went ahead and burned while I was goofing around. I washed out the pot and tried it again.
Seven minutes from just beginning to melt through melting, separating and foaming, the butter was just beginning to brown.
Add the onions and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they are soft and browned.
This was just half my onions; after 15 minutes of cooking it was clear they were not going to be brown in "about 20 minutes" as the recipe suggested.
Measures were required to, as Bourdain put it, "make damn sure the onions are a nice, dark, even brown color." The onions, in such a pool of butter, were simply sweating. Clearly, onion and pot interface had to be increased.
The majority of the softened onions and butter(y juices) were transferred from the Dutch oven into a large bowl, allowing those onions remaining to get nicely browned.
Measures were required to, as Bourdain put it, "make damn sure the onions are a nice, dark, even brown color." The onions, in such a pool of butter, were simply sweating. Clearly, onion and pot interface had to be increased.
The majority of the softened onions and butter(y juices) were transferred from the Dutch oven into a large bowl, allowing those onions remaining to get nicely browned.
Browning began occurring after 5 minutes; another 2 minutes later I saw the browning in the last photo above.
Incrementally, butter and onions (softened and fresh) were introduced to the Dutch oven, stirring as appropriate.
Butter added and combined with onions over one minute.
And now a photo montage of how I spent the next 50 minutes:
This took 8 minutes.
This took 15 minutes; I was worried that my onions were burning, but that's just some serious fond.
Three minutes -- the softened onions though were just intermingled with the brown onions and didn't get browned in that time. The juices from the onions lifted the brown fond from the bottom of the pot, adding to the illusion of the newest addition being browned.
The last of the softened onions were added and the entire mixture was stirred regularly over the next 25 minutes. I was damn sure the onions were evenly dark brown.
Increase the heat to medium high and stir in the port and the vinegar, scraping all that brown goodness from the bottom of the pot into the liquid.
Increase the heat to medium high and stir in the port and the vinegar, scraping all that brown goodness from the bottom of the pot into the liquid.
Add the chicken stock. Add the bacon and bouquet garni and bring to a boil.
Reduce to a simmer, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, skimming any foam off the top with the ladle. Remove the bouquet garni.
Meanwhile, because I don't have fire-proof soup crocks, I prepared cheesy croutons in the oven. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spritz baguette slices with olive oil and bake in the oven on a baking sheet 5-10 minutes just to get them slightly toasted without browning. Pile high with shredded Gruyere cheese and bake another 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Dish soup into bowls and float three or four cheesy baguette slices on top of each.
While it took much longer than I'd anticipated, the results proved the efforts worthy. The soup was very filling and surprisingly meaty in flavor. Certainly a quality stock is key and I'm really glad I made my own. I'm going to have to find soup crocks so I can do the serving part correctly with the leftovers -- huge volumes of cheese covering the crock opening, spilling over onto the crock sides to become nearly burnt.
Burning the butter was simply neglect on my part. I should have had my eye on the pot once I got started instead of goofing around with whatever I was doing, maybe imaging the port, preparing the bouquet garni, whatever. Lesson learned.
The onions though, the quantity was possibly double what the recipe author was going for. I mean, I was using about 8 lbs of onions! Looking back at the original recipe, it calls for "8 large or 12 small onions," not "8 of the largest onions you can find." Had I complied with the instructions and used maybe a 3 lb bag of onions, the onion browning would have been completed in much less than the hour plus I spent accomplishing that task. Also, my final quantity of soup was a lot and it was jam-packed with onions. I am not sure if this is normal as this was the first time I've ever had Onion Soup.
Cost:
- butter: $0.86
- onions: $2.87
- port: $0.60
- stock: $1.30
- slab bacon: $2.50
- baguette slices: $0.99
- Gruyere cheese: $8.99
Total: $18.11 or $1.13 for each of 16 cups. That's 8 very generous servings for $2.26 each.
A couple years ago I made French Onion Sirloin Steak. I remember having enjoyed it but wasn't sure if it actually tasted like French Onion Soup. It did!
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