French Onion Soup from scratch, and I mean SCRATCH! (well, almost! lots of pics) (edited) [View all]
Last edited Tue Feb 12, 2013, 05:21 PM - Edit history (1)
(The "well, almost"? I didn't actually make the cheese!)
I really enjoy making different types of soups, from Clam Chowder to Italian Wedding to US Senate Bean and many others. French onion is one of those types that takes a bit of time, but is SOOO worth it.
Now I admit here that I went completely overboard with this, (probably with the pictures too, so I'm sorry if there are too many) as it is CERTAINLY not necessary to make your own stock AND bake the bread loaves for the crouton, but what the hell. The downside is that I have been putting off some yardwork and other chores!
So no more entire Sundays spent cooking for a while!
For the French Onion Soup, I pretty much followed Julia Child's recipe found here. If you're like me, you look at numerous recipes and put together what sounds best from each one. The reason I like Julia's is because she used the white wine AND the Cognac. The Cognac or Brandy is PARTICULARLY delicious with this soup.
For the Beef Stock, I again, pretty much (LOL) followed the recipe in my "Joy Of Cooking book, page 40, for "Brown Stock".
OK...the mirepoix for the stock. Celery, Carrots, Onion, all large chop and a 6 Oz can of Tomato Paste. I actually held aside the leaf portion of the celery for the soup.
The meat and bones for the stock. I have a package of Beef neck bones, the grocery stores package of "Soup Bones" and a package of Beef back ribs. I'll only use one of the ribs for the meat. The rest I froze for barbecue later on. VERY light salt and pepper. I really want to control how salty the stock is, because I am going to freeze what I don't use and I can add salt to later dishes and sauces.
I used about 2/3rds of the can of tomato paste and in a small bowl (OK, not a bowl, but my handy dandy little Bass Ale glass I got in England, years ago) , mixed in about 2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce. I just can't resist trying to "kick it up a notch"! With my hands, I spread and coated each piece of meat and bone with the Tomato Paste mix.
Into a 425 degree oven for about 15 minutes or so. Out of the oven, add the mirepoix, back in for another 10. I don't want the veggies to burn, so out it comes and stir.
After the first stir;
Ten minutes later, and another stir around, browned up and caramelized pretty good;
All done and into the pot, water to cover plus about 4 inches. Maybe a gallon and a half. I added a cleaned and chopped leek after about 20 minutes per the Joy of Cooking recipe.
Now for the bread. For the French Bread I followed the recipe I found on Betty Crocker.com pretty much to the letter. When I make bread I like to mix the wet in my stand mixer using the whisk attachment (I suppose a professional baker might find this method acceptable), then add just enough flour to make a batter. As soon as it is about the consistency of pancake batter, I switch to the dough hook.
Prepping the batter. About 1 1/2 cups of the 3 1/2 the recipe calls for in the mixer.
Mix in the wet, including the yeast, which I used a packet of Fleischmann's "ActiveDry", the kind you mix with 1/4 cup of warm water (120 or so), add a Tsp of sugar to activate and wait till it starts to foam. My packet activated great, and I was off to the races.
I replaced the whisk with the dough hook, started the machine and slowly added the rest of the flour until it all starts pulling away from the bowl. I had to scrape it down once, but that's par for the course.
It came off the hook like a champ! Onto the lightly floured counter top, kneed for 4 or 5 minutes and then into a lightly oiled bowl, cover and let rise. It was a fairly dry dough, not at all as silky feeling as when I've made sandwich bread doughs.
Florida in the Summertime is actually a great time to bake bread, because it is usually so humid and warm outside that you get a fantastic rise out of yeast doughs by setting it on the patio or deck. Well, it ain't Summer and it's cool and rather dry outside, so I have to improvise to find a warm, humid spot. Solution? The cabinet over the oven. I'll heat the oven up with a pie tin of water. That will warm the cabinet up. Into the cabinet goes the dough and I'll put the steaming pan of water next to it to keep the humidity up. 1990's vintage Marlboro/Penske Racing ashtray to keep it company! (yes, of course the ashtray is clean!)
Risen nicely, about double. (Edit) That was about 90 minutes.
On to the lightly floured counter, cut in two.
Now I'm going to roll one of the halves out, to about 14" or so across and about 1/4" thick.
Now to roll it up. Once I've done that I tuck in the ends and place it on my sheet to rise, seam side of the roll down.
Same thing to the other half of the dough. After scoring the tops, I place both of them back into the cupboard above my oven with the same reheated pan of water to rise a second time.
About 25 minutes later and about doubled again. I mixed a single egg white and a tablespoon of water and brushed that over the loaves, then baked in a 375 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes. I put the tin of water in as well to keep the oven humid.
Now to start the onions. 2 large Yellow onions, halved and sliced thin.
Into a hot pan that has about 3 tablespoons of butter and a bit of olive oil. As soon as they're in, I turned the heat down to medium low.
About 2 minutes in.
10 minutes later
About 20 minutes now.
After about 40 minutes or so. Came along nicely, about the color of my wooden spoon.
Time to actually make soup! I'm going to use a Bouquet Garni. Sprigs of thyme, the celery leaves, bay leaves and the other items. This is more herbs than Julia's recipe calls for, but others that I have looked at call for some or all of them. I also added about a teaspoon of ground sage to the pot. (BIG EDIT!) Completely forgot this and worked on putting this thread together for 2 days!! TARRAGON! TARRAGON TARRAGON! The leaf at right is fresh Tarragon. I found one recipe a while back that called for this, most DO NOT. But I love the flavor, so I used some. I minced about 5 or 6 leaves and they went into the pot. What you see in this pic went into the garni and and I only left the garni in the soup for about 15 minutes or so. Tarragon can easily overpower a dish, so if you do use it, do so sparingly. It adds a beautiful backnote.
Wrapped in cheesecloth and tied with string.
1/3 of the stock into another pot with the garni in and a small bottle of Chardonnay. Salt and pepper.
Happy cook! I just noticed I don't have enough wires in the background.
Adding the onions to what is now soup.
About a ladle full of the stock to deglaze the pan, then back in the soup. Got to get all the oniony goodness!
Pretty much exactly what I was looking for. Not too much soup, not too much onion. Slow simmer while the loaves bake.
And out they come! Lookin' good!
Slicing one of the loaves for the croutons. This is the first time I used that Betty Crocker recipe and you know what? The bread was a bit bland, actually. Not enough salt. The recipe calls for 3 1/2 cups flour, 1 Tsp sugar but only 1 Tsp salt. 2 Teaspoons probably would have made all the difference. Shot of Bourbon in the background for courage!
Under the broiler, lightly toast one side....
Then the other. And YES......those are burnt ones at the top right! These three are try number two! Don't turn your back on bread under a broiler! What a dummy! LOL
I melted a couple tablespoons of butter and added just a small garlic clove. I don't want the croutons too garlicky, so as not to overpower the soup. I coated the 3 slices and put them under the broiler for another 45 seconds or so.
Now to assemble the cups.
Some grated Gruyere to top off the cups. I was actually trying to be snobby and authentic here! But honestly, Gruyere isn't really the best choice for cheese. While it has a great flavor, it loses a lot of fat when heated and becomes fairly chewy. Romano and Parmesan might be a better choice, even a mix with mozzarella. Some recipes call for Swiss cheese, but the bottom line is, like with so many recipes, use what you like. I like that I learned not to use Gruyere again!
A toasted crouton in first.
Ladle in the soup.
Cheese on top.....
And now for the piece de resistance! A splash of Cognac on top.
OK....Don't pour, SPLASH! I just drizzled it over the cheese. I've done this both ways, adding directly to the soup and adding it to the top like this just before the oven. The Cognac really does add a sublime flavor and makes a wonderful difference.
In to the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, and it looked like this.
VOILA'!
French Onion Soup.
You can see the fat I mentioned from the cheese. I suppose filling the cups as high as I did worked to my advantage in this regard, as all that fat ran out on to the baking sheet. It really was the wrong choice, but still tasty.
Believe it or not, the first photo I took for this series - the one of the meat - I took at 10:30 AM on Sunday. The last photo above was taken about 8:15 PM!
Once again, I hope you enjoyed this and I hope it inspires you to give it a try. Packaged Beef stock works perfectly well, of course and so does store bought Baguettes or French Bread. You don't have to spend 10 hours making soup! But I enjoy the craft involved, so it was a pleasant way to spend a Sunday.
Enjoy, and eat and be well.
Paul
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