French Onion Soup

French Onion Soup is Angie’s favorite and part of the joy of cooking is not necessarily cooking what you want to eat, but instead making cooking what others enjoy. So my goal since making my first FOS a couple of years ago was to make a high-end restaurant quality FOS that I could make for Angie at home. I took a few tries, but I finally got it!

The biggest lesson I learned from trial and error is the stock you use is everything! I will start by just stating that if you are going to use store bought stock, don’t bother – just go out to a good restaurant and order it. I use a bold beef stock (see my Beef Stock post). Depending on how bold it is (milk chocolate vs. dark chocolate color), I either use it as is, or cut it with a 75% beef stock – 25% chicken stock (also homemade) mix. With a good stock, the rest is pretty easy!

Ingredients (3 servings … actually 2, but Angie as another bowl the next day):

• 1 quart of stock
• 4 medium to large yellow onions
• 1/4 cup of dry sherry
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 bundle of thyme
• 5 Oz of Gruyere cheese
• 1 baguette (or French bread)
• Kosher salt
• Chives (optional)

Special Equipment:

• Oven safe individual serving soup crocks

Slice (about 3/8") and separate the onions. Some recipes you might find tell you to thinly slice the onions, but I find that when thinly sliced and then cooked down the onions become to mushy. This is going to look like a mountain of onions, but don’t worry they will cook way down!

Because I do not make huge batches of soup, I find that I need to use a large sauté pan to cook down the onions because they will not fit in the sauce pan I use for the soup. I you are making a large batch in a large soup or stock pot, you can likely cook down the onions in the same pot. Coat the bottom of the pot or pan with a good olive oil and then over medium heat, cook down the onions to past just sweating them down, but stopping short or caramelizing – it helps to cover the onions during the first part of this step. Onions contain a lot of sugar, so salt the onions generously while they are cooking down. You almost cannot over salt that this point. Some recipes will tell you to caramelize the onions, but once again there is a texture issue. The onions are going to simmer in the soup for about an hour, so if you go all the way to caramelized, you end up with onion mush in the end product. What you want is for the onions to have some body and texture (tooth feel). Once you have cooked down the onions, add the sherry and allow it to reduce by half.

Now combine the onions, stock, bay leaves and thyme (both in a bouquet garni) in the same pot (I use a 3 Qt sauce pan), bring it to a boil, reduce it to a simmer, then allow it to simmer partially covered for 1-hour. You should taste it once in a while and add salt as needed. The onions will continue to release sugar so don’t be perplexed of you seem to always be adding salt!

While the soup is simmering, slice the baguette into ½ to ¾" slices (2 per serving), lightly brush each with olive oil, then toast under the broiler until golden brown.

Once the soup is done, fill each crock about ¾ full (ensuring you get both liquid and lots of onions), add two toasted baguette slices to each crock, then fill each crock up with more soup.

Top each filled crock with about 1.5 Oz of grated cheese, and place the crock under the broiler until the cheese is melted and bubbly, with just a bit of a burn. Garnish with chives and enjoy!

Bold Beef Stock

I was considering blogging about French Onion Soup, but then I realized that before you can make a great French Onion Soup you need a hearty Beef Stock. Unlike the chicken and the egg paradox, this one is easy – the stock comes first!

Time – 24 hours. Prep and processing time about 3 hours, cooking time about 7 hours, non-active time about 14 hours.

 

Yield – between 3 and 4 quarts.

 

Ingredients:

• 4-5 pounds of beef marrow bones (get the ones that are split or cut in about 2” sections)
• 1 lb of beef stew meat (the cheap stuff)
• 2 medium to large carrots
• 2 medium to large stalks of celery (with as many leaves as possible)
• 2 medium parsnips
• 1 large or 2 medium yellow onions
• 4-5 cloves of garlic
• 4-5 bay leaves
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• A large bunch of thyme
• ¼ tsp of whole black pepper corns (about 20)

Important – NO SALT – You salt for the recipe requirements when you actually use the stock.

 

The first step is roasting the bones. This is critical because roasting is what brings out the flavor! Start by brushing one marrow exposed side of the bones with tomato paste – the acid in the tomato paste helps break down the collagen in the marrow so that it can be released into your stock. Place the bones on a roasting tray, brushed side up, along with the stew meat into a pre-heated 425 degree oven for 30 minutes.

 

While the bones and meat are roasting quarter your onion(s); split and cut the carrots, parsnips, and celery into about 2 – 3 inch chunks; and smash the garlic. There is no need to clean and peel and these aromatics, just toss it all in as it all gets strained out later.

  

 

After your bones have roasted for 30 minutes, remove them from the oven, turn them over, brush the newly exposed side with tomato paste, lay the aromatics (less the celery leaves) on top, and then put the pan back in the oven for another 30 minutes.
 

When the bones have finished roasting, transfer the contents from the roasting tray to a large stock pot; fill with water to about 1 inch over the bones; and add the garlic, thyme, bay leaves, pepper corns, and reserved celery leaves to the pot. Deglaze the tray you roasted the bones on with a little bit of water, and also add the deglazed fond to the pot. Bring the contents of the pot to a low boil, and then reduce to simmer, partially cover, and allow the contents to simmer for at least 6 hours.

Here is a decision point for you – add or do not add water lost during the simmering. There are two schools of thought here. Adding water to make up for loss will increase your stock yield, but result in a lighter (less bold) stock. Not adding water will result in a darker bold stock. Either is fine in my opinion because if it is too bold you can cut it with water when you use it, and if it is too lite you and reduce it when you use it. I choose the bold method because it cuts down on the amount of freezer storage space required. If I had a bigger freezer I would probably make it a bit lighter.

 

After simmering for at least 6 hours you need to flash cool the stock. This is important for sanitation reasons. If you just take the stock off the heat and let it cool naturally, the stock will be in food temperature danger zone (40-140 F) for an extend period of time. I have two methods of flash cooling. In the summer I place the pot (uncovered) into an ice bath in the kitchen sink, and usually change the ice bath water at least once (after about 30 min). In the winter I just put it outside – in snow if available). My last batch we had no snow, but the temperature outside was in the single F digits, so it was fine!

 

After you have flash cooled to at least room temperature, you want to do your first straining. In this first straining you are only removing the big chunks so you can do this through a medium mesh metal strainer or colander. You can also just use tongs to pick out everything that is packable. I recommend the course strain - it is not a vital step at this time, but it makes the next day easier.

Once the initial training is done cover the stock and set it in refrigerator (summer) or in a non-heated but not frozen garage or porch (winter), and let it rest overnight. Be careful about putting it outside to cool and rest for extended periods. Where I live raccoons and coyotes make overnight outdoor storage a bad choice. If you want to use the outside for overnight and are concerned about animals, consider putting it in your car – it’s covered and won’t stink the car up.

 

The next day you will find a solidified layer of fat on top of the pot that is easily removed. You want to remove and discard most of this, but leaving a little behind is ok because you do not want your stock to be 100% fat free – Fat has flavor!

 

 

After the excess fat has been removed, it is now time to start the real straining. Before you strain I recommend reheating the stock to just about 100 degrees to melt and redistribute the remaining fat back into the stock (fat has flavor and adds the silky texture so you want some to remain). I do my first strain through four layers of cheese cloth. You need to be patient as the cheese cloth does plug up and may need to be changed during the process. It is during this straining that you are going to remove A LOT of nasty slimy gunk.

 

You’re almost there! After the first pass through cheese cloth, strain the stock a second time through four layers of cheese cloth. I usually find that this pass through the cheese cloth is enough (and it does not plug up), but if you are still seeing too many particulates for your liking, you can repeat cheese cloth straining as many times as you wish.

 

 

Your stock is complete and ready for use and/or storage. I typically store mine in doubled 1 quart freezer bags containing 1 or 2 cups each (I mix it up). I find using the freezer bag storage method to be space efficient as you can lay them flat and stack them in the freezer. One and two cup plastic containers available at most grocery stores is also a great option.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now you have a bold beef stock ready to be turned into French Onion Soup, which will be the topic of my next post!

Paleo Bruchetta

A coworker of mine, who I shall simply refer to as M'Lady to protect her identity, has embarked with her family on the Paleo Diet adventure. After reading up on what the Paleo Diet is, I thought it would be fun to invent a Paleo recipe just for her. It took two tries to get it right. So here you go M'Lady!

Recipe as written makes 6, scale up as appropriate.

• 1 medium vine ripened tomato cut in ¼” dice
• 2 TBLS of  1/8” diced red onion
• 1 small clove of garlic finely minced
• 1/4 lemon juiced
• 2 large or 4-5 small fresh basil leaves chiffonade cut
• ¼ tsp of red chili pepper flakes
• ½ TBLS of EVOO
• Small pinch of salt
• 6 ¼” slices of English Cucumber, sliced with a heavy bias (steep angle)

Combine all of the ingredients (except the cucumber) in a glass bowl, cover and allow about 1 hour for the flavors to meld.

 

Spoon a heaping TBLS of the topping onto each cucumber slice.

 

Non-Paleo addition - sprinkle a little grated parmesan on top :).

 

And there you have it - So simple even a caveman can do it!

 

 

 

Stir Fry Sauce

My daughter bought me a really awesome wok for Christmas, along with a notice that she was coming home shortly after Christmas and expected to see what I could do with it. This posed a bit of a problem because with the exception of rice, I had never cooked any Asian food before. Mom gave me a hint on the direction to go - Thai food.

My first order of business was to Google Thai food recipes and one of the first things I noticed was that the majority of the dish recipes call of Stir Fry Sauce, and many simply list it as an ingredient for the main dish with a notation to "See Stir Fry Sauce recipe below."

 

After reviewing several different Stir Fry Sauce recipes, I determined that while there are differences, most have two things in common.  They are made up of equal parts of all listed ingredients and include at least the following:

• Soy Sauce
• Fish Sauce
• Lime Juice
• Sugar (usually light brown)

I started my Thai adventures using this basic Stir Fry Sauce recipe to make a simple dish of stir fried shrimp, onions, peppers, and cherry tomatoes. It actually turned out good!

TIN CHEF TIP: I had never touched Fish Sauce before but I remembered a question from the most recent season of Master Chef - "What is Fish Sauce and why does it smell like death?"  I can confirm that it smells like death! While preparing your Stir Fry Sauce - DO NOT hold the Fish Sauce bottle up to your nose and smell it! If you do, your craving for Stir Fry will be instantly quashed and replaced with a craving for Hamburger Helper.

With one stir fry success under my belt, it was time to step it up a notch so for my next attempt I decided to do Thai Spring Rolls and Stir Fried Baby Bok Choy. The surprising thing about the two recipes I used was that they were from the same author, but each contained a different Stir Fry Sauce recipe. Both recipes also contained a chef's tip - make extra and store in a glass container for later use. That sounded like a great tip, but having my refrigerator full of glass containers containing different Stir Fry Sauces did not seem practical so I decided to review several recipes, pick a list of ingredients, and come up with one of my own.


This recipe will make approximately 1 cup of Stir Fry which is enough for 3 or 4 woks of stir fry.

• 4 TBLS of Soy Sauce
• 4 TBLS of Fish Sauce
• 4 TBLS of Oyster Sauce
• 4 TBLS of Thai Chili Sauce
• 4 TBLS of Fresh Lime Juice (2-3 limes)
• 4 TBLS of Light Brown Sugar
• 4 Cloves of Minced Garlic

 

 

I used this recipe for both the Spring Roll filling and Stir Fried Baby Bok Choy, and both turned out great! I have enough left over for at least one, maybe two dishes, which sets me up perfectly for Thai food on Fast Food Monday!

 

 

 

 

The Capon Caper

The grocery store I normally shop at (Big Y) carries several items during the holiday season that are typically not available without special order during the rest of the year. Just before Thanksgiving I asked an eager young lad (20 something) at the butcher counter if they had any geese. He headed off the back and a few minutes later returned with a nice 14 pound goose - AND a 6 lb capon, telling me "I thought you might also like one of these!"

Two thoughts ran through my mind - what's a capon? ... and nice upsell kid!



So I leave Big Y with a $70 dollar goose and a $24 bird that I need to Google in order to find out what it is! I am not really sure why I did not Google it in the store before I bought it, they have free wifi. I really did not realize that I had bought a $24 chicken until I got home! Now my biggest question was - Does it taste like chicken?

I figured I should probably take a look at some capon recipes just to find out if there is anything different you need to do to a capon. Removing various parts was likely not going to be an issue as those parts had already been removed, but one never knows what other steps might be necessary. Interestingly, Googling capon recipes returns very few results but "Damn You Auto Correct" tries very hard to change capon to Capone, so I figured I had a gangster chicken on my hands (or at least an Angry Bird) and all I really needed to do to cook it check for weapons and if none were found, treat it like a chicken.

So here is my rendition of Roasted Capon.

Ingredients:

• 1 capon (duh) - Mine was about 6 pounds.
• 1 lemon (quartered length ways)
• 1/4 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter softened (room temperature)
• 1 yellow onion (quartered length ways)
• 4 large cloves of garlic (two chopped fine, two smashed)
• About 10 large Sage leaves (6 coarsely chopped, 4 whole)
• Kosher salt
• Fresh ground black pepper

Process:

Allow your capon to sit out until at room temperature. Preheat the oven to 450. Remove any excess fat from around the body cavity openings, wash the capon inside and out with cold water, thoroughly pat dry inside and out, and then generously season both the cavity and entire outer body with salt and pepper. This is a good time to check for weapons and recover the goodie bag of giblets stuffed inside which can be used to make gravy. I personally don't go for the giblets gravy, but the neck can be added to the pot of chicken stock you make the next day using the post capon feast carcass.

Squeeze out a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice from one or two of the wedges and reserve. Stuff the capon with the onions, lemon wedges (even the squeezed ones), smashed garlic, and whole sage leaves; then truss the capon to hold in the stuffed ingredients and hold its shape while cooking.

Combine the butter, chopped sage, chopped garlic, and reserved lemon juice in a small bowl. Spread this mixture all over the outside of the capon. There is no getting out of getting your hands messy here so ensure the kitchen sink pipes are queued up with hot water and that you have soap nearby.

Using a roasting pan with rack, pour about 2 cups of water into the bottom of the pan and place the capon breast down on the rack. Roast in pre-heated oven for about 20-30 minutes, then remove it from the oven, turn it over (breast up), baste with the juice from the pan, and then lower the oven to 375 and return the capon to the oven.

Let it roast at 375 for about an hour, or when the temperature in the thigh reads 155-160 with an instaread thermometer, basting at least once during this time and adding water to the bottom of the pan if needed.  When the temperature is 155 - 160, turn the oven back up to about 450 to crisp the skin (about 10-15 minutes).

And that's it - you have a beautifully roasted capon with some great drippings in the pan for gravy!



So back to the question I know you are dying to know the answer to - Does it taste like chicken?


Yes, yes it does, but a damn good chicken! I'm not going to go out an spend $24 every time I want roast chicken, but for the holidays or special occasions I will do it again. 

Recommended sides:

• Mashed potatoes with gravy made from the drippings.
• Oven roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta.

Apple Nut Bread

Shortly after Thanksgiving I was in still in the holiday food mood and made a couple of loaves of Cranberry Nut Bread which turned out great. I started thinking Apple Nut Bread would be good to, so and went out in search of an Apple Nut Bread recipe. I was dismayed by what I found! When I was thinking Apple Nut Bread, I envisioned apple pie with big chunks of apple, but all the recipes I found had you murdering that poor apples. Some had you mashing the apples and some had you grating the apples, but none of them offered you that large tart bite fruit that you get with an apple pie (and cranberry nut bread if done right).

The only way to solve this problem was invent my own! So here it is, my original contribution to Internet cuisine.

Note: the proportions here are for one 9x5 loaf, but you may want to double it because you only really need 1-1/2 apples for one loaf (or just eat half an apple while cooking).

For the Bread:

• 2 Granny Smith apples
• 1/2 lemon
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1 cup of chopped walnuts
• 2 TBLS of butter, melted
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 3/4 cup of apple juice

Peel, core, and slice the apples into 8 wedges, each wedge cut in half across the middle. You only need 1-1/2 apples, so you can eat half of one. Place the apples in a large bowl, sprinkle with 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, squeeze 1/2 of a lemon all over it, and then toss to coat all of the apple chunks.

Place all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and vigorously whisk with a wire whisk to evenly distribute all of the ingredients. What you are doing here is essentially the same as sifting together the dry ingredients, but you really do not need a sifter, just make sure everything is evenly distributed.

Using a heavy wooden spoon, mix in the apple juice and melted butter until evenly distributed, then add your egg and continue to mix.  (Tip - whisk the dry ingredients first so you can use the same whisk for the egg).

Once the wet and dry ingredients of fully mixed, fold in the apples and nuts. This will be a very think batter. Spoon it into a greased 9x5 loaf pan and bake at 350 for about 45-50 minutes (until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean). After baking let it cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then remove it from the pan an allow it to fully (well .. mostly) cool before glazing.

For the Glaze:

• 2 TBLS of butter
• 2 cups of sifted confectioners sugar (you can whisk this also, but not to vigorously unless you want to breath it :)
• 1/4 tsp of cinnamon
• 3-4 TBLS of apple juice

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan. Remove from the heat stir in the confectioners sugar and cinnamon - this will form a thick glob. Spoon in two TBLS of apple juice and continue mixing, adding additional spoons of apple juice to get it to a consistency that will poor and cover the bread without all of it running off. (a little thicker than ketchup).

I would have no problem trowing down against Bobby Flay with this one!

Baklava is Better than Twinkies

It's that time of year when inevitably you are going to end up needing to bring some type of food to a social gathering of friends, coworkers, or family.

With Hostess out of business, my old trick of arranging Twinkies on a plate is out! While I'm sure that now Twinkies would be a bit hit at just about any gathering (except one at a union hall), I only have 20 left and would have to go all the way to Canada to get more, so I had to come up with a plan B. So what is just as good as a Twinkie? ... Baklava (aka Honey Bombs)!

You do not see Baklava at social gatherings often because while it is not "hard" to make, it is VERY labor intensive. Maybe I am just slow in my old age, but from start to finish it takes me about 3 hours with 2.5 of that being "active" time - But oooh is it so worth it. Go out and buy the finest baklava from the best deli in town and compare it to homemade. There is no comparison - Why? Because of profit margins. One piece of baklava at my local deli is $3.50, and to get it down to that price they have to cut a lot of corners - less nuts, less butter, less honey, less phyllo ...you get the idea.

Essentially I use Michael Symon's recipe (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-symon/baklava-recipe/index.html), The only changes I make are that I use crushed Carr's water crackers instead of zwieback, and 1 more TBLS of lemon juice (3 instead of 2).

• 32 sheets of phyllo dough
• 1 pound of unsalted butter
• 1 pound of walnuts (chopped)
• 1 cup of well crushed Carr's water crackers
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 8 oz of honey
• 3 cups of sugar
• 3 TBLs of lemon

Mix the chopped nuts, cinnamon, and cracker crumbs in a large bowl.

Now here comes the "hard" part - assembly. Start by brushing a 9x13 glass dish with melted butter, and then create the bottom with 10 layers of phyllo dough, brushing each layer with butter before laying the next. Then spread 1/4 of your nut mixture followed by 4 more layers of dough (each brushed with butter of course), and repeat this sequence until you have used all the nut mixture. Then top it all off with 10 more layers of dough. What you end up with is:

• 10 layers of dough
• nuts
• 4 layers of dough
• nuts
• 4 layers of dough
• nuts
• 4 layers of dough
• nuts
• 10 layers of dough
• And butter all over the place - note the parchment paper :).

This is important - Cut it before you bake it (350 for about 45 min). If you attempt to cut it after it is baked, the top layers will crumble!

Once it is in the oven, you get a 15-20 minute break!

You want to start to make the syrup about 30 minutes before it comes out of the oven because you are trying to time it so both the syrup and the baked baklava have a 5-10 minute cool down period before the committing to each other - and this is a life long commitment.

For the syrup, combine the honey, sugar, and 1 1/2 cups of water in a sauce pan and bring to a boil stirring constantly (if you don't stir, this will boil over like a volcano - trust me on this). Once it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to simmer for about 20 minutes. This is the most interesting part. Honey by its nature has a lot of impurities in it so as it simmers an odd looking scum will form on the top - the color and consistency of the scum will depend on the brand and probably batch of honey. Skim this off as it forms. When the scum is gone and new scum stops forming (about 20 minutes) add the lemon juice and let it simmer a couple of more minutes.

By now the baklava should be baked. Let both the baklava and syrup cool for about 5 to 10 minutes, then pour the syrup all over the top of the baklava. Your Done! But NO you can't have any. It needs to sit for several hours (over night) before it is ready - sort of sucks after all that work!  

Now all that is left is getting it ready to travel. This is not too hard, but you do have to remember to take the cat out of the tray before loading it up with the baklava. Time saving hint - if you have never posted the picture of the cat sleeping in the tray on Facebook, then you don't need to wash it because nobody will know!