As any meatball American would tell me I'm not supposed to like anything about the French. But you gotta give it to them on their classic dishes in the kitchen including one of my favorite soups. French Onion Soup is something I usually order out and it can either be really good or very bad. If your at a steakhouse or very good classic French bistro it's usually great but other places it varies. I decided to go ahead and dip into the 2-3 day process of making a real deal batch of it. The most important part is the beef broth. So for this I made my own which is pretty easy.
Ingredients for Beef Stock
-3 lbs beef neck bones
-2 lbs beef soup bones
-Quartered Onion, Celery and Carrots
-Water and regular old canned beef broth
-S&P
Directions for stock
1) Take your beef soup bones and place them on a oiled baking dish and cook them at 350 for an hour.
2) Start out by lubing the bottom of a pan and proceeding to brown the beef neck bones on each side and then set aside.
Browning
Beef Neck Bones
Note: You can eat the meat off the beef neckbones as a snack or use it in another dish as I did.
2) Once the neckbones are browned and removed add water little by little to pot and scrape off the black bits on the bottom and then add the soup bones and half water and the other half beef stock to your pot (use a bigger pot and fill it 3/4 way). Proceed to add the quartered onions, carrots and celery as well as the salt and pepper and bring to an almost boil and then turn the heat down and let it simmer for at least 4-5 hours.
Note: It's best to let your stock sit overnight which is why you should always make the broth a day or two ahead. After it sits in the fridge for a few hours a layer of fat will form on top. Remove this but save it for cooking.
Ingredients for French Onion Soup
3 tablespoons butter (quartered)
2 tablespoons rendered beef fat
8 large yellow onions (halved and sliced)
2 cups water , plus extra for deglazing
1/2 cup dry sherry
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
6 cups beef broth
6 sprigs fresh thyme (tied with kitchen twine)
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons paprika
Salt and Ground black pepper
Cheese Croutons
1 small baguette , cut into 1/2-inch slices
Shredded Gruyère cheese (about 3 1/2 cups)
Please Note: I used what I liked from two recipes including one from LTHforum via Cook's Illustrated and the other from what's said to be the recipe for Barr's (St. Louis) French Onion Soup.
Directions
1) Preheat oven to 400, with rack in lower-middle position. Spray the inside of a dutch oven with nonstick spray. Add beef fat, butter, onions and 1tsp salt. Cook for an hour, covered, and then remove and stir, scraping the pot. Put it back in the oven with the lid off just a bit and cook for another 90-105 minutes, scraping at the hour mark, until the onions are brown and very soft.
Onions just added in
2) Remove the pot, put it over medium-high heat, and keep cooking for about 15-20 minutes, or until all the onions brown and the liquid evaporates. Keep cooking for another 6-8 minutes until you have a dark crust on the bottom, and then add 1/4 cup water and deglaze. Repeat this deglazing/evaporating process two or three times, and then stir in the sherry and let it cook until it evaporates again.
Onions just about ready
3) Add all the broth, two cups of water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 tsp salt and deglaze again. Bring to a simmer over high heat, and then reduce the heat back down and let it simmer (covered) for 30 minutes. Throw away the herbs and season with S&P.
French Onion Soup ready for serving
4) To make the croutons, bake the baguette slices on a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes, until dry and golden.
Soup in the bowl before bread and cheese
Before the layer of cheese goes on top
5) Fill broiler-safe crocks with soup, top with baguette slices, sprinkle with gruyere, and broil for about 3-5 minutes until the cheese is melted bubbly, and then let it cool for another five minutes.
French Onion Soup: Good to go
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Bonus chibbqking Original Recipe
Beef Neckbone Poutine
Ingredients
- Meat removed from beef neckbones
- 3 large Idaho Potatoes
- 1 Onion (diced)
- Shredded cheese of your choice
- Beef Gravy
- Salt & Pepper
Directions
1) Bake the potatoes until done and let cool in fridge. Then make your beef gravy. I made mine from the beef fat rendered from the stock using a traditional recipe for gravy.
2) When ready to make take the potatoes out and dice them up and then do the same with the onion. Sautee a frying pan and then add the onion and cook for five minutes. When onion starts browning add the diced potaotes and let them get crispy on the edges and then add the neckbone meat and salt and pepper and cook another five minutes.
A different take on a French Canadian favorite
3) Two minutes before you turn off the heat, add the cheese and toss it around. Add desired amount onto each plate and then top it with gravy.
chibbqking Beef Neckbone Poutine
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See ya next time @chibbqking
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