French Onion Soup

French onion soup and I go way back.  Back when TGI Friday’s waiters actually wore flair buttons and obnoxiously striped shirts; a young Beth Stewart had her first bowl of that onion-y delicacy. Brothy, sweet, cheesy glory was had that day.

While I love going off the cuff and creating my own version of the classics, this time I chose to go with a trusted source to guide me through French Onion Soup.  That source being Alton Brown of Food Network fame. He’s an easy choice as he is incredibly thorough with instruction and knowledgeable when it comes to food science.  The only thing I changed about his recipe is that I exchanged the white onions for red and used a large saucepan instead of an electric skillet.  If I remember this episode correctly, his skillet was quite long which allowed the onions to spread evenly.  I didn’t quite have that luxury and eventually ended up with a huge pile of onions to caramelize.  The only thing you need to watch out for when using a saucepan is the amount of water that accumulates from the onions.  I just periodically drained the excess liquid from the pan so as not to boil the onions. 

Once the soup was finished of course I had to add a huge piece of french bread and a pile of gruyere cheese to my individual portion.  I choose to toast my bread a little before putting it on top of my soup.  Then I added some shredded gruyere on top of that bread and broiled the soup.  Soooo, amazing.  Please visit Alton’s recipe at foodnetwork.com for instructions.

Pumpkin Soup Shooters

Ingredients

½ onion chopped
1 celery stalk chopped
1 carrot chopped
2 tbs oil
3-4 cups chicken stock
1 can pumpkin
2 tbs coconut creme
1 tsp nutmeg
½ cup half and half
salt and pepper to taste

1. Saute the first 3 ingredients in the oil until translucent and tender.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
2. Once veggies are soft, add chicken stock and bring to a boil.
3. Next, add 1 can pumpkin puree and simmer on medium, low for 10-15 minutes.
4. After 15 minutes, add nutmeg, cream and half and half.
5. Cook for another 10 minutes or so.  Next, let the mixture cool for about 5 minutes and blend in a blender or use an immersion blender to get contents smooth.
6.  Finally, pour mixture into shot glasses and enjoy!

Corn Chowder with Ancho Chile and Avocado Corn Salsa

After I made this dish I asked myself, “Am I actually a good cook or does bacon just make everything taste better?”  My co-workers assured me that it was both.  You'll soon notice that I am no stranger to bacon but corn really isn’t a staple in the Stewart household. but seeing the rows of husks at Trader Joe’s just drew me in.

Aside from the awesomeness that is bacon, this was only the second time I’ve used ancho chile powder and I am not planning on looking back now.  Made from dried pablono peppers, the ancho chile added a surprising smokiness to this corn chowder. Want to know another surprise I had up my sleeve?  Mascarpone!  I saw another corn chowder recipe that called for the creamy concoction and knew I had some readily available. 

2 ears of corn shucked, 2 pieces of bacon, 1/2 onion chopped, 1/2 bell pepper chopped, 1 clove of garlic minced, 1 1/2 cups chicken broth, 2 dollops or roughly 2 tbs mascarpone, 1 tsp to 2 tsp ancho chile powder, 1 avocado, 1 lime, salt and pepper to taste

Chop and fry your bacon in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Set bacon aside and leave that glorious bacon fat in the pan.  (I did remove just a little bit of fat to prevent over greasiness) Next, sauté the corn, onion, garlic and bell pepper for about 3 minutes.  Add the chile powder, salt and pepper to taste and cook for another 2 minutes or so.  Once your veggies are browned but not too soft remove about a ½ cup of the corn for the salsa.  Next, add the stock and bring to a boil.  Once it’s to a boil, bring the heat down to a simmer and add the mascarpone.

In this next step I used an emersion blender, but if you don’t have one handy use a food processor.  If you don’t like molten, hot liquid on your flesh, I would make sure to cool the chowder first, before blending your ingredients.  So what I did was take the emersion blender and processed my soup to make a creamy, frothy chowder.  After that was completed, I chopped ½ the avocado, added lime, corn, salt and pepper to a bowl to make my salsa.  If I had had some on hand, I would have also added cilantro.   Lastly, top your chowder with the salsa and bacon and have at it.