Well, I began testing the waters a little, and found him true to his word. My supper meals escalated in price, but he didn't flinch. One thing I did enjoy was an appetizer consisting of French Onion Soup. Most nice places served it, and very few sucked at it. Of course I'm talking about the beef-broth based soup with cooked onions, a bread crouton of some sort on top, covered with melted mozzerela or provolone cheese. A fantastic addition to any meal, I assure you. It is one of my favorite foods.
Since I moved to GA, and even some years before that when running the ISP, I rarely travelled, and never seemed to partake of it locally, and I really missed its gooey, hearty goodness. This weekend, I decided to experiment and I nailed it first time. I didn't use anyone's recipe, but I did hork some techniques from Food Network as far as cooking the onions. But the ingredient mix was done on the fly yesterday.
Mikey's French Onion Soup
4 Medium Onions, sliced fairly thick. I used regular yellow, but a sweet like Vidalia would rock, IMO.
1 Stick real butter
2 TBS EVOO (Thats Extra Virgin Olive Oil for you in the midwest)
Salt, Pepper
1 TBS Garlic Powder
1 Qt Prepared Beef Broth
2 TBS Worchestershire Sauce
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried parsley
2 Slices frozen garlic toast (I used Pepperidge Farm Texas Toast)
Package Italian Cheese
Peel and slice the onions and seperate into rings. Melt the butter with the EVOO in a large sauce pan or small dutch oven until foam subsides, over medium heat. Add the onions, and season with the salt and pepper to taste (so it looks good). Add the garlic powder. Now the object here is to CARMELIZE the onions, not saute them. What you want to happen is for the onions to soften big-time, while taking on a nice brown color. They will release their sugars and it will mix with the oils. This should be done on medium/medium-low heat, and will take about 15-20 minutes if done properly. When they're done, you'll have a nice slimy gooey brown-colored pan of onion goodness.
Add the beef broth, worchestershire sauce, basil and parsley. Stir well and bring to a slow simmer. Taste occasionally and salt and pepper as needed. Simmer (don't boil!) 15-20 mins.
Toast your garlic bread thuroughly in the oven. The package on mine said to set the oven on 425, but I went with 350. You want to not only brown it, but dry it out as much as possible in the process. You're making a crouton of it.
Ladel some soup into an oven proof bowl or ramakin. Place the the bread on top of the soup and cover with a generous portion of the cheese. Put under a low broiler until the cheese is bubbly and browning on top.
Holy Moly.
P.S. No, this is not low-carb.
