French onion soup!

Believe it or not, this was my first time making French onion soup. Several years ago, I had an intense bout of IBS--thanks to Accutane--which lasted about five years. During that time, I couldn't eat onions or beans. Then one day, all the digestive weirdness disappeared, and I discovered I could eat onion and beans again. As you know--half the recipes on this blog feature those items. But since then, I've avoided French onion soup. I can't say why.

So the other day, when I had a craving for some really deep, complex taste, my brain pulled French onion soup out of nowhere. "And look at that," I told myself, "I have a 10-lb bag of onions just waiting!" Cost: $5.48. So away I went.

I adapted Anthony Bourdain's recipe from the Les Halles cookbook. Here it is, in adapted form:

1 stick of butter
6 really big onions, halved and sliced very very thin
a big splash each (2-3 tablespoons) port and balsamic vinegar
2 quarts homemade stock

Get a really big pot and melt the butter slowly, over medium heat, while you chop the onions. Cry. Add the onions, still over medium heat, and let them cook down until they are approximately the color of a penny. This will take at least half an hour. Don't stand over them stirring constantly, either. You want some of them to burn a little and stick to the bottom. Just let them do their thing.

After they've cooked down sufficiently, all soft and dark brown, deglaze with the port and vinegar, scraping up all the brown stuff on the bottom of the pan. Add the stock (any kind is fine; chicken, veggie, whatever, but the darker and more intense the stock is, the better the soup will be). I also added a bouquet garni--technically, a bay leaf, a sprig of thyme, a sprig of rosemary, and a couple other things tied up in a little cheesecloth packet, but I tied up a bay leaf and a bunch of loose dried herbs because I didn't have any fresh.

Let that cook down for about an hour. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Find some ovenproof bowls and get the broiler going. Toast some bread, or find some stale bread. Ladle in the soup, and add enough bread to cover the top. Add a handful of really good grated Gruyere. Broil that for a minute, just long enough to blister the top of the cheese, and serve immediately. And carefully.

The Gruyere aside, this soup costs practically nothing. Bought in bulk, all those onions cost maybe $2. I made the stock myself, and if you don't have any port on hand, use a splash of red wine instead. Let's say another $1 for the stick of butter. That's a shade over $3 for an entire pot of French onion soup, at least six full-meal adult servings. Now, granted, I spent $10 on a really good hunk of cheese and used most of it. But even so, that's maybe $10 total for the whole shebang. That's less than $2 a serving, for a soup that requires very little maintenance and no prep, aside from onion chopping. Use veggie stock and leave off the cheese, and you've got a great vegan dish.

Cookbook review: Wine Lovers' Desserts

Dessert wine, for me, is tricky. It's usually far too sweet and cloying for my tastes. On the other hand, my sister will drink it with her entree.

This is the fourth (and final?) book in the Wine Lovers series. This one features dessert recipes paired with dessert wines, such as Peach Tarte Tatin with an ice wine. (Note: ice wine is not wine with ice in it.) If you're a dessert wine fan, this book will take you a long way. Even if you're not, though (like me), it'll provide a good jumping-off point.

Cookbook review: Harvest to Heat: Cooking with America's Best Chefs, Farmers and Artisans

Harvest to Heat: Cooking with America's Best Chefs, Farmers and Artisans is one of those cookbooks that's almost more photography than recipes. Food porn all the way.

It highlights the symbiotic relationships between chefs and their suppliers. Until fairly recently, the supplier was probably Sysco, shipping in boxes of frozen meat and questionable produce every week, right along with the plastic take-out containers and packets of Equal. Thankfully, many chefs have started to reexamine the origins of their food, so that it's no longer unusual to find a menu that highlights local farms.

Harvest to Heat pairs celebrity chefs (Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Eric Ripert) with the men and women who grow, herd, ranch and create the artisanal foods that supply those chefs. And with recipes like Crab-Stuffed Zucchini Flowers with Black Truffles, or Goat Cheese Panna Cotta with Caramelized Figs, how could you not want to sit down with this cookbook and a nice glass of wine and plenty of Post-Its for bookmarks?

Granted, some of these may not be the most frugal of recipes. But sometimes you gotta splurge.

Cookbook review: The Wine Lover Cooks Italian

Yet another in the Wine Lovers series, which I love (because I'm a wine lover). This particular one may be a bit hard to find, as I think it only went through the one printing. If you find it, snag it.

It breaks down the regions of Italy (Piedmont, Veneto, Tuscany), with signature recipes from each region, paired with that region's wines. Italian wine, like French wine, can be a bit impenetrable for the newbie American wino; the labeling is wacky, much different than what we're used to, so it can be hard to figure out what it is you're actually drinking. But, as evidenced by my state of near-constant inebriation when I visited Rome, it's a topic well worth a little research. Books like this make it a little easier to figure out.



White and black bean chili

I call this Michael Jackson chili…because it’s black AND white. Ha!


Anyway. I made this vegetarian-style, but a little meat certainly wouldn’t hurt. I’d recommend Italian sausage or ground pork.

1 diced onion
a few diced cloves of garlic
2 cups each white and black beans (pre-cooked or canned)
2 cans tomatoes
Chicken or veggie broth
Seasonings: chili powder, paprika, dried red chili flakes, cumin, salt
Optional: pepper jack or habanero cheddar cheese, on top

If you’re adding meat, sauté that first in some olive oil. Otherwise, skip ahead. Saute the onion and garlic in olive oil until soft (or add to the browned meat). Add the beans and tomatoes, and enough broth to float the whole thing. Let cook down for about 10 minutes, add seasonings to taste, and let cook another 10 minutes or so. Serve with some kind of hot pepper cheese on top, shredded. (Leave that off for a vegan version.)

Did you know you can make your own baking powder?

Check THIS out!

1/4 cup cream of tartar
2 tablespoons baking soda
3 tablespoons cornstarch

Mix with fork, store in small jar. Use within two months or so.

Sweet potato risotto

This is much the same as my butternut squash risotto. Simply roast 3-4 big (or 5-6 small) sweet potatoes, slip the skins off, and roughly chop. Then follow the standard risotto template:

Saute one diced onion in a little olive oil until soft. Add 1 cup arborio rice to that and let it toast for a minute. Deglaze with white wine. Add chicken or veggie broth, a little at a time, stirring, until the rice absorbs it. Then add more. Continue until the rice is done and most of the remaining liquid is gone. About halfway through that process, add the sweet potatoes. Finish by adding a couple handfuls of grated parmesan, and season to taste with salt and pepper.