Thursdays Are For Cooking

This time it’s about stench. Stinky foods that, when you include them in a meal, not only make you happy but may benefit your health

Garlic, for example, is known to have beneficial properties including being able to unclog your arteries, reduce blood clots, and drop your blood pressure, as well as scaring off werewolves and vampires. It has a plethora of species both wild and domesticated. It has been tested and found to be effective against candida, cholera, staphylococcus, salmonella, dysentery, and typhus. The most familiar species is Allium sativum, which you can buy in many forms at the grocery store. I found that ants don’t like the way it smells, either, when the bulbs are on my countertop.

And then we have the very familiar cooking ingredient, the noble onion, which also comes in many forms, including but not limited to the spring or green onion, with the long green tails still attached; the mature bulb onion, which is what you get at the grocery store. When the bulbs are harvested, it is after they have produced a flower head, which matures into a set of smaller bulbs, which are allowed to cure and then bagged and sent to your hardware store for spring planting.

I think French onion soup – or just plain old onion soup – is the best thing since sliced French bread. And the recipes all call for  the same basic ingredients:

sliced onions

beef broth (some recipes call for chicken broth, too)

thyme and a bay leaf or two

garlic

some wine (white or red, your choice), about a cup

salt and pepper,  and in some recipes brown sugar or Worcestershire sauce

butter and olive oil – to cook and soften the sliced onions, to a clear state only – NOT fried!

baguette slices and some cheese – Swiss, gruyere, mozzerella – you choose what you like, because when you put the soup into the oven-proof bowl and put the baguette slice and cheese on top, and then put it under the broiler for about 3 to 5 minutes,  it always comes out gooey and good.

I found that the best way to slice a big round onion is to use a mandolin for it, and put it right into the pot.

That’s your basic recipe.  Some cooks prefer Vidalia onions, because they don’t have the sulfates that make your eyes water. Others don’t have a real preference. The Bermuda or red onion is extremely hot when raw, but when sliced and put in to the pot for soup, it loses the tear-generating proclivity, as do all onions when cooked, including the yellow or Spanish onions in the second photo.  Some recipes also ask for flour to thicken the soup, but I think that’s a personal preference.

I don’t think it makes any real difference. They’re all good. This one is from All Recipes, and looks quite easy to follow.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/13309/rich-and-simple-french-onion-soup/

Whether you use a slow cooker or a Dutch oven or a plain old covered stockpot, the best way to cook it is slowly, on low heat so that the onions won’t burn, for about 30 to 45 minutes, to develop the flavor.

I don’t see how something this good can possibly be bad for anyone, except perhaps someone allergic to alliums in general.

Whatever you do, it’s good stuff and cold weather is coming up in a few weeks. Something like this on the hod will also keep well until you’ve disposed of it properly with a spoon, a bowl  and preferably briefly under broiler. You can also freeze it for several months. Put it with a salad and some good crusty bread and butter on the side, and a slice of my grandma’s pineapple upside-down cake (yes, I found that one) with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and you’re home.

And please remember to thank the farmers who produced those onions in your soup bowl.

 

Category: Economy