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December 15, 2008
My Kitchen, My World: France
A day late on this one...
I'm hoping in the new year, I'll get to do much more of this. Between dissertation and kids, I didn't virtually visit as many countries as I would have liked. Or when I did make the food, I didn't find time to blog about it.
So, here's our French meal: French onion soup. It was a nice trip down memory lane for us as we reminisced about the little cafes where we ate on the streets of Paris.
I looked at the crockpot lady's recipe, and the one in Joy of Cooking, and sort of went from there with ingredients we had on hand. I didn't have enough time to fully crockpot it, but I didn't want to leave it on the stove when I went to pick up Tim, so I compromised. You could do it fully on the stove, or fully on the crockpot, just tweak it.
French Onion Soup
6 tblsp. butter
3-4 medium onions, sliced into rings
4 garlic cloves thinly sliced (just for fun)
1/2 tsp. herbes de provence
1) Cook onions and garlic and herbes de provence in butter on medium-high until starting to color, then turn down, put lid on and stir occasionally. I did it until it was a light caramel color, since I knew it was going into the crockpot to cook longer. You can do it a little darker.
2) Dump contents into crockpot. Pour over:
1 beer (I used a fall ale with hints of yummy spices). Most recipes called for white wine, but we didn't have any on hand
3.5-4.5 cups beef broth (I made some up with some good boullion we have. I'm sure homemade would be much better)
3) Cook in crockpot on low for 2 hours. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
We don't have any oven-proof bowls, so I couldn't do the traditional toast with cheese broiled on top of the soup. So, I toasted a few pieces of bread until dry and crispy, grated gruyere cheese on top, and then broiled until the cheese bubbled and served it along-side the soup.
My Kitchen, My World , Paris , adventures & travels , cooking stuff | By Tim and Jo | 2:44 PM
