I finally got the French Onion Soup accomplished.
I was making chicken noodle vegetable soup yesterday, so sautéed a big pile of extra onions, and then put them into the Crockette for about three hours to slowly caramelize. And did they ever!
Then into the refrigerator until lunch time today. I added a couple of cups of very thick chicken bone broth and the broth from having crocked some steak bones overnight, and then prepared some very crispy giant croutons covered in large globs of Baby Swiss Cheese.
I preheated the toaster oven with the serving dishes in it (with a little water in them so there weren’t just dry dishes in there) and got the soup good and hot on the stove in a pan. When the toaster oven was up to temperature, I ladled in the soup, topped each serving with the very crispy, cheesed-up croutons, and then back into toaster oven for only about five minutes to melt the cheese. By pre-heating the soup on the stove top, and pre-heating the bowls, the final steps happened quickly and we were slurping it down in record time.
The flavor was just as I had dreamed of, and to add just the right French touch, I sprinkled a generous bit of tarragon on top. That really made the soup sing a happy tune!
NOLA Boy loved it, and went back for seconds, so a new crouton and cheese had to be hastily arranged. Happily there is enough left for a small bowl to accompany a panini tomorrow!
Note self: Buy more sweet onions!
I love onion soup, that sounds delicious, Judi, have a nice weekend, virtual hugs, Mitza
It was more delicious than I’d hoped! Very flavorful from the slow cooking of the onions, I think.
Yes, I think you should always cook onions slowly. I like onions in melted sugar with portwine a lot, too. Onions are very healthy. We had some Chinese food today (small pieces of point steak with onions, leek, mushrooms, peppers, bamboo sprouts etc. with rice) Was delicious, too. 🙂
Yum!
Reading how you’ve made this soup is in itself mouthwatering, then comes the photo… 🙂
Oh, Judilyn, I love a good French onion soup. I usually get one that I love at this restaurant tho. Never tried to make it at home. Looks amazing. Onion breath, but gotta love all that cheese that goes into it.
I loathe and detest raw onions. Onion soup is NOTHING like onions. The slow cooking brings out the sugar in the onion and mellows it beyond belief. You don’t really need to saute in a pan first before crocking them for a few hours if you don’t feel like it. I’ve done it both ways. It was just convenient to do the sauteing because I was already doing the veggies for the chicken vegetable soup. See next post (tomorrow) for the chicken vegetable soup.
So creative!
And so yummy! Leftovers are being enjoyed in three more minutes!