MY ONE AND ONLY NEW YEARS RESOLUTION

to post weekly on my blog.  post recipes to share. 

i wish i had taken photos of the things i've made the past couple of days but i wasn't thinking of my blog.  just of making soup.  i'm not the biggest fan of soup but when it gets cold there are a few that i do like.  monday night i made roasted tomato basil soup.  it's a barefoot contessa recipe and it's sooo good.  roasting the tomatoes in the oven gives great depth of flavor.  the nice thing is that you can roast the tomatoes a day ahead and make the soup the next day.  i won't post the recipe as i don't want to make any copyright infringements.  just know, like i said, it's a barefoot contessa recipe.  probably available on foodtv.com.

new years eve eve i made a batch of french onion soup that turned out great.  the first time i made french onion soup was over 25 years ago.  i used a recipe out of martha stewart "entertaining".  it calls for about 5 pounds of onions.  it took forever to caramelize the onions.  my tiny apartment smelled like onions for a week!!!  it also calls for an ungodly amount of homemade beef stock.  i've made it once or twice since and it a great recipe.  as i've grown more confident in my cooking i find myself winging it more often with certain dishes.  i couldn't find a recipe that i wanted to use this time so i just used the basic idea. one thing i do differently is the cheese.  i never like all the gloppy gooey cheese and soaked bread so i make cheese toasts that are floated on the top when served.  so.....here's an approximation of my recent attempt of french onion soup that got RAVE reviews:

GAIL’S FRENCH ONION SOUP

 

6-8 Yellow Onions, sliced very thin

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

1-2 teaspoons Dried thyme (whole, not ground)

4 tablespoons flour

8-10 cups stock*

12/-1 cup cognac (or red wine)

1 teaspoon Salt

¼ teaspoon fresh ground Pepper

Baguette, sliced in rounds, toasted both sides

½ pound Gruyere cheese, grated

 

Heat oil and butter in heavy bottomed large pot over medium-high heat.  Add onions and cover pot for 5 minutes.  Remove lid, stir and lower heat to medium heat.  Continue cooking onions until nice golden brown color, stirring frequently.  (the darker the color the richer the flavor but don’t let it get too dark).  Add flour and stir until incorporated.  Cook for another 3-5 minutes stirring once or twice so flour doesn’t burn.  Add stock, thyme, salt and pepper.  Stir.  Allow to simmer, stirring occasionally, for an hour or so.  Add more stock if necessary.  Adjust seasoning, to taste.

 

Place toasted  baguette rounds on baking sheet.  Top with generous amount of gruyere cheese.  Place under broiler until cheese is melted and just starting to brown.  Serve soup into bowls.  Top with cheese toasts.  Enjoy!!!

*any kind of stock will do.  Beef gives the riches flavor and homemade is the best but a nice low sodium broth works too.  I made beef broth with the bones left from the Christmas roast and it was fantastic but I didn’t have enough so I had to supplement with store bought chicken stock.  vegetable broth would work for vegetarians.

 

Comments

[Lori Flower]

mmm I love french onion soup! I made this today for lunch and it was terrific, thanks!