Onion Soup?!
Answers: I am going to make French Onion Soup, I have McCormicks beef base, what are your suggestions using it? I have never used a beef base before. Do you have a good recipe?
I use the beef base to make broth by stirring it in boiling water at the rate of 1 teaspoon beef base to 8 oz. water.
Here's my recipe:
8 medium to large purple onions
4 tablespoons butter
2 (10-3/4) ounce cans concentrated beef broth (OR about 3 teaspoons beef base disolved in 22 oz. boiling water)
1-1/2 (10-3/4) cans of water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce
1/2 loaf French bread, cut into 2" thick rounds
Mozzarella or Provolone cheese, thinly-sliced
Cut the onions into 3/8" slices, then cut the slices in half
In a 4-quart stockpot or Dutch oven, saute the onions in the butter. Do this very slowly, over a medium heat until deep, dark brown, with a thickened, almost caramelized texture without being burned. This can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 40 minutes.
Add the broth, water, salt and Worchestershire sauce and simmer until hot. Preheat the broiler.
Place 1 piece of the French bread in individual ramkins or high-sided, broiler-safe bowls. Ladle the soup over the bread until itis covered and the soup is near the top of the ramkin or bowls. Cover the ramkins or bowls with the cheese, and place under the broiler until the cheese is melted and beginning to brown on top.
INGREDIENTS
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 large red onions, thinly sliced
2 large sweet onions, thinly sliced
1 (48 fluid ounce) can chicken broth
1 (14 ounce) can beef broth
1/2 cup red wine
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 sprigs fresh parsley
1 sprig fresh thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 thick slices French or Italian bread
8 slices Gruyere or Swiss cheese slices, room temperature
1/2 cup shredded Asiago or mozzarella cheese, room temperature
4 pinches paprika
DIRECTIONS
Melt butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Stir in salt, red onions and sweet onions. Cook 35 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are caramelized and almost syrupy.
Mix chicken broth, beef broth, red wine and Worcestershire sauce into pot. Bundle the parsley, thyme, and bay leaf with twine and place in pot. Simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove and discard the herbs. Reduce the heat to low, mix in vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Cover and keep over low heat to stay hot while you prepare the bread.
Preheat oven broiler. Arrange bread slices on a baking sheet and broil 3 minutes, turning once, until well toasted on both sides. Remove from heat; do not turn off broiler.
Arrange 4 large oven safe bowls or crocks on a rimmed baking sheet. Fill each bowl 2/3 full with hot soup. Top each bowl with 1 slice toasted bread, 2 slice Gruyere cheese and 1/4 of the Asiago or mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle a little bit of paprika over the top of each one.
Broil 5 minutes, or until bubbly and golden brown. As it softens, the cheese will cascade over the sides of the crock and form a beautifully melted crusty seal. Serve immediately!
Easy Onion Soup
4 cups thinly sliced large onions
? cup butter or margarine
? teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoon beef base (more or less to taste)
2 2/3 cup boiling water
Fry onions in butter or margarine until golden brown, sprinkling with pepper while cooking. Dissolve bouillon cubes in boiling water add browned onions and simmer 15 minutes. Serve hot.
Make your broth first. Start with cold water in your soup pot, as much as you like and heat it. Drop a tablespoon of your broth base in at a time. Processed soup bases have huge amounts of salt, normally, so go easy on the base until you like the flavor/saltiness of the broth.
Slice your onions (unless you prefer them chopped) and saute them in a little butter or oil in a frying pan until they turn golden, about 15 minutes.
Traditionally, Onion soup is served in little crockery bowls with some shredded Swiss or mozarella cheese and a small slice of good bread floating on top.
Onion soup is fairly simple and yet can be as difficult as the recipe you follow. If you use common sense you can do it without a recipe, just know your ingredients. First off, I can tell you beef base is a great start to your soup. Make a broth with hot water and the base, tasting as you go to insure it doesn't get too salty. If you use too much beef base at this point, you can add more water to get it right. When your broth is simmering you can saute your onions in butter and eventually adding salt and pepper along with some Worcestershire sauce. I like to use two types of onions, red and yellow,..but whatever you have on hand is fine. Also, slicing the onion or cutting them julienne style is your option, just don't skimp use a very large amount, as the cooking process shrinks the onions down to at least a third of the amount you start with.
When your onions are almost lightly browned and caramelized add them to the broth and continue to simmer and adjust the salt and pepper to your taste before serving.
Presentation of your soup can be in smaller individual bowls with crusty style bread or croutons on top finally sprinkled with cheese. Mozzarella works well for this as does provolone, Parmesan, or a combination of all of them.
Yummy,..I love French onion soup,...good luck with yours :o)
What I do is fry up onions in butter, then I do a consume , add garlic salt pepper, red wine. splash of Worchestershire Let that go to reduce.. Then get your bread toast it, season it, throw some Parmesan cheese on it, bake it. When soup is done add your croutons, to your soup, add provolone cheese on top, nuke.