French Onion Soup

Apr 11, 2014

This is based on Onion Soup Les Halles, from Anthony Bourdain. Deep, layered, and rich.

Most recipes say to cook the onions for 20 minutes. All of those recipes are lying. I’ve found that the onions aren’t brown enough until they’ve cooked for 1–2 hours. The extra cooking time, and scraping the bottom, is what makes this soup so deep and satisfying.

Slice a lot of onions, with a food processor if you have one.

Put the butter and salt in a heavy pan.

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Heat the butter over medium heat until it begins to brown.

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Add the onions and start cooking.

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Cook, stir, scrape bottom of pan; cook, stir, scrape bottom of pan; cook, stir, scrape bottom of pan . . . Until the onions are dark and caramel-colored. They will reduce by about two-thirds.

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Increase the heat, stir in sherry and balsamic vinegar, cook for a few minutes.

Add chicken and beef stock.

Add herbs. I didn’t have fresh herbs, so I put some dried herbs in a coffee filter, stapled it shut, and tossed it in the pan. No, I don’t know where those staples have been.

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Bring to a boil for a minute or so.

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Reduce heat to simmer, season to taste with salt and pepper, and scrape off scum that forms on top. There is no nice way to say that.

Simmer for about an hour.

While the soup is simmering, start the croutons by slicing a baguette about a 1/2″ thick.

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Place baguette slices on a cookie sheet, then drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

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Bake in a 350° oven for about 20 minutes, until toasted. These have been flipped over – they won’t be this brown on top when you take them out of the oven.

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When the soup is done simmering, ladle it into oven-proof bowls on a cookie sheet. Put croutons on top of soup.

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Cover croutons with shredded cheese.

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Place the cookie sheet/bowls under the broiler until the cheese bubbles and begins to brown, about two minutes.

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French Onion Soup

You'll have the most success if you use an enameled cast iron pan. When I've used a good stainless steel pan, the kind with a thick aluminum/steel sandwiched bottom, I've found it impossible to get the onions brown enough without burning. The onions will go from beautiful to black in half-a-second, always just right before you think they will.

Cooking the onions 20 minutes at a time allows parts to stick to the bottom and get even more brown. Allowing that to happen, then scraping and stirring that into the soup, will give you much deeper flavor than stirring so often that nothing sticks to the bottom.

I would not make this without the sherry (or port, or even Marsala, or maybe just a red wine) and the balsamic vinegar. There are no distinct flavors in this soup (you'd never know there was balsamic vinegar in it), but they're all necessary to contribute to the overall flavor.
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 45 minutes

Ingredients

Broth

  • 6 oz butter
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 8 large onions sliced thin (I use a combination of sweet, yellow, and white)
  • 2 oz sherry
  • 2 oz balsamic vinegar
  • 1 qt chicken stock
  • 1 qt beef broth
  • bouquet garni or similar herbs (like a few springs of thyme, some sage, etc.)

Croutons

  • sturdy French or Italian baguette sliced 1/2"–1" thick
  • olive oil
  • salt
  • 12 oz Gruyere cheese shredded (or cheat and use Swiss)

Instructions

Soup

  1. Place the butter and salt in a large pot, preferably an enameled cast iron pot.
  2. Heat the butter over medium heat until it begins to brown.
  3. Add the onions and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes. If you're using a thin pan (even one with a thick, stainless/aluminum sandwiched base), you'll have to stir frequently. If you're using an enameled cast iron pan, you don't have to worry about burning so much.
  4. Stir the onions, scraping the bottom of the pan until all of the stuck bits are free.
  5. You want the onions a deep, dark, caramel brown color. Cook for another 20 minutes, scrape, cook again . . . It usually takes me about an hour and a half to cook out most of the liquid generated by the onions and to get the onions dark enough.
  6. When the onions look like melting caramel, increase heat to medium high.
  7. Stir in sherry and vinegar.
  8. Cook for a few minutes.
  9. Scrape and stir.
  10. Add chicken and beef stock.
  11. Add herbs.
  12. Bring to a boil for a minute or so.
  13. Reduce heat to simmer.
  14. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  15. Simmer for about an hour, skimming off any foam that forms on the top.

Croutons

  1. While the soup is simmering, place the baguette slices on a cookie sheet.
  2. Sprinkle with olive oil and a little salt.
  3. Bake in 350° oven for about 20 minutes, or until toasted.

Assemble the soup

  1. Ladle soup into individual oven-safe bowls that you've place on a cookie sheet.
  2. Place as many croutons as will fit on top of the soup.
  3. Cover croutons with shredded cheese. Don't be afraid to have it slop onto the bowl, and don't be stingy.
  4. Place the cookie sheet full of soup bowls under a broiler until the cheese bubbles and begins to brown.

 

Prime Rib

Jan 3, 2014

It’s easy to find variations of these techniques. This is from a small store and gas station combo in a tiny town, not everyone’s first choice to buy meat. But people from many miles away would order meat for special occasions from Al’s. Captain OCD never bought steak from a grocery store, but would drive out of his way to buy steak from Al’s. I’ve transcribed the directions as written.

When relying on your oven for such an expensive cut of meat, it’s worth your while to invest a couple of bucks in an oven thermometer so you’ll know if the oven setting and the actual oven temperature bear any similarities.

prime-rib

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Prime Rib

Ingredients

  • Prime rib

Instructions

Cooking Method I

  1. Start with roast at room temperature
  2. Preheat oven to 500°
  3. Place roast on a rack in a roasting pan and cover.
  4. Roast 5 – 6 minutes per pound in preheated oven.
  5. Turn off oven.
  6. Leave oven closed and do not peek for 90 minutes. The internal temperature of the meat should read 130° – 140° for rare. [Use a thermometer with a probe to keep track of the temperature without opening the oven.]
  7. Let the roast roast for 15 – 20 minutes before carving.
  8. Cut strings and remove ribs for easy carving. [If you asked, you could get your prime rib from Al's with the ribs already removed, but tied together with the roast so you'd still get the flavor from the bones.]

Cooking method II: medium rare every time. This is the method Captain OCD uses.

  1. Start with roast at room temperature.
  2. Roast 1 hour per pound in 200° oven.
  3. Let roast stand for 15 – 20 minutes before carving.

Cooking method III

  1. Roast at 325° for 17 – 20 minutes per pound.
  2. Watch thermometer carefully, remove at desired temperature.
  3. Let roast stand for 15 – 20 minutes before carving.

 

 

Pasta salad with chicken

Apr 21, 2013

This keeps really well for a few days, so I have never made just a single batch. We usually have it as a main dish, with the leftovers for lunches.

All of the following photos are of a double batch.

Go to the recipe.

Cook and drain the pasta.

pasta salad 1

Chop the onions, dice the cucumber and celery, and halve the grapes.

pasta salad 2

Mix all the salad ingredients together in a bowl.

pasta salad 3

Pour all the dressing ingredients together.

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Whisk the dressing ingredients well.

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Fold the dressing into the salad and mix well.

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Clean up your mess.

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Serve on a bed of shredded lettuce, garnished with cashews and tomatoes.

pasta salad 8

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Pasta Salad with Chicken

Great for a light summer meal. Best if you let it rest for a few hours in the refrigerator before serving.
Prep Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

Salad

  • 6 oz dry corkscrew pasta cooked, rinsed, and cooled (Or any sturdy kind with lots of nooks for dressing to adhere to.)
  • 2 cups cooled cubed cooked chicken Or, if alliteration isn't a concern of yours, turkey. Can also leave this out, just use more pasta.
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 1 cup diced cucumber
  • 1/2 cup diced celery
  • 1 cup grapes halved
  • olives Sliced, if you like. I don't, so no olives in any salad I make.

Garnish

  • cashews chopped
  • lettuce chopped or sliced
  • cherry tomatoes halved

Dressing best way

  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon prepared mustard Whatever kind you prefer, but cheap yellow mustard makes it taste a bit bitter; I use deli or brown mustard; many like Dijon here.
  • 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1-1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed garlic or 1/4 teaspoon powdered garlic
  • splash hot pepper sauce

Dressing easier-but-still-good way

  • 1/2 cup bottled Italian salad dressing Because it's half the dressing, the kind you use will significantly influence the flavor.
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon prepared mustard Whatever kind you prefer, but cheap yellow mustard makes it taste a bit bitter; I use deli or brown mustard; many like Dijon here.
  • 1/2 tsp lemon pepper
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • splash hot pepper sauce

Instructions

Salad

  1. Mix all the salad ingredients in a bowl.

Dressing

  1. Blend the dressing ingredients well.

Assembly

  1. Fold the dressing into the salad, using only as much as you like. Keep in mind, the chicken and pasta will soak up a lot of dressing, so if you use too little, the salad will end up dry after sitting for a while. There will be dressing left to add to the salad later if necessary.
  2. Let it rest in the refrigerator for a few hours.
  3. Before serving, add more dressing if desired.
  4. Serve on a bed of lettuce.
  5. Top with cashews, tomato, and egg.

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Sweet and Sourish Sloppy Joes

Sep 23, 2012

Adapted from an old church cookbook, where it was called Hamburger Heaven.

sloppyjoe

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Sweet and Sourish Sloppy Joes

Ingredients

  • 2 lb hamburger
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 1/2 cup celery chopped
  • 1/2 cup green pepper chopped
  • 2 tablespoons dry mustard
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 tablespoons vinegar
  • 1 cup ketchup
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions

  1. Brown hamburger, onion, celery, and green pepper.
  2. Drain grease.
  3. Add rest of ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes.
  4. Serve on toasted buns.

 

Bechamel Lasagna

Sep 23, 2012

blasagna

Rich and creamy, this is an elegant twist on the usual lasagna.

This recipe came with a ceramic pie pan many years ago, but it’s been modified often since then.

This is time-consuming, a lot of work, and gets a whole bunch of dishes dirty in the preparation. I always make at least a double batch and freeze the extra.

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Bechamel Lasagna

Add all seasonings to taste.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb lasagna noodles

Filing

  • 2 lbs hamburger
  • 1 lb ground sausage
  • 1 lb bacon
  • 2 large carrots diced
  • 2 onions diced
  • 8 cloves garlic minced
  • 3 stalks celery diced
  • 3/4 cups sun-dried tomatoes chopped
  • 1 lb fresh mushrooms sliced
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 3 teaspoons dried basil
  • 3 teaspoons dried oregano
  • dash pepper
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/3 cup tomato paste
  • 8 oz Parmesan cheese
  • a few healthy glugs of Marsala wine

Sauce

  • 8 oz butter 2 cubes
  • 1-1/2 cups flour
  • 6-1/2 cups milk substitute 1/2 cup of milk with chicken stock or Marsala if you have it
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • dash pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg or more to taste – essential to this dish

Instructions

Filling

  1. Sauté bacon, hamburger, and vegetables until hamburger is browned and vegetables are slightly tender.
  2. Drain grease. (there will be a lot of grease)
  3. Stir in tomato paste and sour cream.
  4. Cook on low heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
  5. Cook noodles while the filling is cooking.*

Sauce

  1. Melt butter. (I use the microwave – much less stirring necessary.)
  2. Stir in flour.
  3. Microwave for 1 – 3 minutes, or until it bubbles.
  4. Stir in remaining ingredients.
  5. Microwave on high for about 6 minutes (or until thickened; depends on your microwave), stirring every minute.

Assembly

  1. Line 9 x 13 baking dish with one layer of noodles, meat and vegetable mixture, sauce, Parmesan.
  2. Repeat for second layer, and third if you have enough for three layers.
  3. Bake at 350º for 45 minutes or until brown on top and heated through.

Recipe Notes

*I don't pre-boil the noodles, but add about a cup of water to the sauce. That's enough liquid to cook the noodles while the lasagna bakes. To avoid extra-hard crunchy noodle bits, make sure every bit of every noodle is covered with sauce.