Creamy White Onion Soup

This is the most delicious new recipe I’ve tried in a long, long time. I had been collecting onion soup recipes, but I what I was really looking for was dark, brothy, French onion-style soups. I tossed this recipe in with the rest, however, hoping it would have some ideas within it to steal. It turned out to be so wonderful, that I might just forget about French Onion soup!

The original recipe was fancy and complex, not because the soup itself was particularly fussy, but because there were a few fussy accompaniments. You see, this recipe was from a high-end restaurant, and was designed to satisfy someone with much higher expectations that I would have for a weeknight supper. There was a tiny toast garnish with cheese along with a dollop of onion jam. All good things, I’m sure, but I just wanted the soup.

For the most part I stuck to the recipe for that delicious soup. I didn’t have one or two of the ingredients for the subtle flavorings, but I either left them out or made a pretty adequate substitution. I also left things a wee bit rustic by not straining the soup after pureeing it, which I found to be just fine.

The soup gets its beautiful pearly whiteness when white onions are cooked until they are very soft, but without letting them brown. My soup had a few flecks of color because I added crushed red pepper flakes, not having fresh chiles on hand. I didn’t mind the slight marring of the appearance, but you could use a fresh chile instead. As a complement to the rich, creamy texture, I recommend some kind of crunchy garnish, like croutons or crostini, or sesame sticks like I used. A sprinkling of fresh chives goes a long way toward making a bowl of this soup look beautiful without a whole lot of extra work.

In the end this soup is fabulously flavorful and extremely satisfying. It’s sweet and rich, flavored almost entirely with white onions, wine, and cream. The onion flavor is the dominant flavor, but it is balanced and enhanced by the cream. The two kinds of wine that go into the soup, dry white wine and sweet mirin, bring out interesting tastes in the onions as well as contribute their own flavors. I really do recommend using white onions and the full dose of butterfat from the heavy cream. The resulting melded flavors and smooth, luscious texture is something you just don’t want to miss!

Creamy White Onion Soup

Adapted from Bon Appetit magazine

You can replace the red pepper flakes with a small, diced chile pepper if you wish.

¼ cup olive oil

4 large white onions, peeled and chopped

1 leek, white and pale green parts, thinly sliced

2 stalks celery, chopped

½ teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to taste if needed

4 medium-size cloves garlic, finely chopped

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

½ cup dry white wine

½ cup mirin

½ cup heavy cream

Crunchy croutons or sesame sticks for garnish

Finely chopped fresh chives for garnish

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onions, leek and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally until the onions are just soft, about 10-12 minutes. Do not let the onions brown.

2. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook about 1 minute more.

3. Add the dry white wine and the mirin. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and cook at a low simmer until the onions are very soft and translucent, about 25-30 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.

4. Transfer the onion mixture to a blender and puree until very smooth. (Add a little water if needed.) Return the pureed mixture to the pot and add the heavy cream. Reheat over medium-low heat. Serve hot and garnished with croutons or sesame sticks and chives.

Makes about 6 servings.

Another recipe like this one: Potato and Garlic Scape Soup with Chives

Curry Chutney Egg Salad

Yes, Memorial Day has passed and summer is nearly here. There should be something seasonal and vibrant in the kitchen, or something sweet and celebratory. The Messy kitchen has been a bit dull, however, as I am still, slowly but surely, adapting to a new work schedule. That’s why the thing I’m excited about right now is egg salad.

This isn’t a boring egg salad, though, but one with a bit of sweetness and spice and that exotic dustiness of curry powder. It came from an idea in a magazine clipping to stir mango chutney into mayonnaise, and then use that to bind together a simple egg salad. I was afraid a sweet, gingery mango chutney would be a bit cloying all on its own, however, so I added the curry powder, some spicy mustard and a dash of hot sauce.

I found the balance in the recipe below to be very good. It’s flavorful and interesting without totally overpowering the eggs. If you don’t like eggs, or don’t really care about them shining in your sandwich, you could kick up the seasoning to make a spicier salad. You could also add more chutney if you like its fruity sweetness, or use a different exotic condiment in its place for a different flavor.

If you follow food news at all, you probably know that eggs might be a dear commodity in the not too distant future with the, shall we say, cleaning up of thousands of chickens potentially infected with avian influenza. This might just be the right time to seek out some clean local sources of eggs, many of which should be free range or at least cage free.

You could also make a chicken or turkey salad like this one, if that’s more to your taste, although the birds themselves will be becoming a bit rarer in the supermarket as well. Of course, if you prefer a vegan version, you could probably translate this recipe quite effectively into a chickpea salad like this one. Perhaps with all the poultry uproar right now, we’d be well off to make this into a winner, winner chickpea dinner after all. Just a thought.

Curry Chutney Egg Salad

Based on a recipe in Martha Stewart Every Day Food magazine

1/3 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons mango chutney

1 tablespoon spicy mustard

½ teaspoon curry powder

1 tablespoon lemon juice

¼ teaspoon hot sauce

¼ teaspoon coarse salt

A few grinds of black pepper

¼ cup finely chopped fresh chives

¼ cup finely chopped celery

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and finely chopped

1. In a medium-size bowl, combine the mayonnaise, chutney, mustard, curry powder, lemon juice, hot sauce, salt and pepper. Stir to combine well.

2. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to coat. Serve on bread as a sandwich or on crackers or crostini.

Makes 4-6 sandwich-size servings.

Other recipes like this one: Lemon-Fennel Egg Salad, Chickpea Salad, Turkey Salad with Sherry Vinegar and Smoked Paprika

Savory Carrot Pie

I wasn’t sure if I was going to post this recipe. My first bite was mediocre, or so I thought, but more bites led to more appreciation and more pleasure, and I even found the leftovers to be better still. This is another version of the seasonal vegetable quiche-like pies I bake for supper when I feel like I have a little extra ambition.

The new, super-sweet carrots showing up in farmer’s markets just about now are perfect for this pie, which is savory, though based on that sweeter combination of ricotta cheese and sautéed onions along with those carrots. The savory-ness is punched up by Dijon mustard and cheddar cheese, which complements the carrots and ricotta very well. I flavored this dish mildly with a bit of parsley (because that’s what I had on hand), but I think other herbs, such as tarragon or dill, would be even better.

 

The crust for this pie needs to be partially baked before the filling is added. I used this method to blind bake it and I used half of the dough recipe in this post. You could use your favorite recipe for the pastry and your favorite method of blind-baking the crust.

While the flavor of this pie is like a slightly sweet, vegetable-filled omelet, the texture is that of a dense quiche. The extra density is from that hefty dose of ricotta. I used a part-skim ricotta in my pie, which I thought made the texture a bit gritty. As the pie stood longer, however, I found it to feel a bit smoother, which the reheated leftovers being even better. This makes me a firm believer in the instruction to allow the pie to stand a good 15 minutes before being cut into and enjoyed. It will still be plenty hot, and the settled, improved creaminess of the rested pie will be worth the wait.

Savory Carrot and Ricotta Pie

The blind baking method I used for the crust of this pie is outlined in detail in this post.

Crust for a single crust pie (I used this one), rolled out

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup thinly sliced onion

¼ teaspoon coarse salt

1 ½ cups shredded carrot

1 tablespoon dry sherry

¼ cup chopped parsley

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

2 eggs

1 cup ricotta cheese

½ cup milk

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Roll the dough into a 12-inch circle and place it in a 9-inch pie pan, being careful not to stretch it. Gently prick the crust all over with a fork. Line the crust with foil that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Place pie weights on top of the foil. Bake at 400 F for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and remove the foil and weights. Bake 5-8 minutes more or until the crust is golden brown. Remove from the oven. (The filling can be prepared while the crust is baking.) Reduce oven heat to 350 F.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and salt and cook, stirring often, about 5 minutes, or until the onion is beginning to brown. Stir in the carrot and sherry. Cook and stir about 2 minutes more. Stir in the parsley and black pepper. Remove from the heat.

3. In a medium-size bowl, beat the eggs. Beat in the ricotta cheese and milk. Stir in the carrot and onion mixture.

4. Brush or spread the Dijon mustard over the baked pie crust. Sprinkle the cheddar cheese over the mustard. Pour the egg mixture over the crust.

5. Place the filled pie plate on a large baking sheet. Place in the oven and bake at 350 F for 45-50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Cool on a wire rack 15 minutes before slicing to serve.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Chard Tart with Feta Cheese and Olives, Corn and Green Onion Tart with Bacon, Ricotta Tart with Peppers and Onions, Summer Squash Galette with Ricotta and Feta

One year ago: Pea and Almond Pesto with Pasta and Peas