Text 19341, 126 rader
Skriven 2009-01-09 00:00:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av MIKE ROBERTS
Ärende: Re: Eggs, chickens, etc.
================================
-=> Quoting Mike Roberts to Janis Kracht <=-

 MR> old boss of  mine ran an old hobby farm. He used to....
 MR> made it sound terrrible, the way we raise chickens
 MR> for the masses to eat. Almost like  raising calves for veal. Stuff
 MR> these chickens (not like on thanksgiving, but with real food <grin> )
 MR> and give the old steroids. some get sooo heavey so fast they can't
 MR> even support thier own weight. Seems kind of sad. I never had  a, shall
 MR> we say, fresh chicken right from the farm, but love fresh eggs. 

I'm not as concerned about the feelings of chickens as I might veal
calves as they are dinosaurs with Very Tiny Brains but I am
concerned about the nutritional and taste aspects of consuming them.
                                         
If you've followed the comments of Dave S, Janis and myself about
chickens at all you know that we all highly recommend the effort of
seeking out fresh chickens right from a (small) farm. Mine are
frozen not fresh but they are good quality and worth a premium
price.


MMMMM-----Meal-Master - formatted by MMCONV  2.10

     Title: Tom's Onion Soup
Categories: Soups, French
  Servings: 4

      8 md onions
    1/4 c  olive oil
      3 tb butter, divided
      3 tb flour
           wine
           stock
           croutons (olive oil on
           french bread chunks)
           Cognac
           Gruyere

Since It's not supposed to get abnormally warm anytime soon now is
as good a time as any to get with making one of the cheapest and
most delicious of the members of the Winter soup phylum: Onion Soup.

Making onion soup really couldn't be more retardedly simple.
First thing you'll need is onions, lots of onions.

I used 8 medium sized, cheapo yellow and red onions that I got from
Food Bazaar for $1 a bag. A whole regular grocery store mesh bag's
worth is about right. You can use all one kind if you want, I just
thought that diversity of flavor couldn't be a bad thing.

Next you want to peel and slice the onions. I was planning on having
a GGTV piece to accompany this post a la Julia Child's "Your Own

Onion Soup" that was knife skill instruction but if you can't wait
until mid-week you'll just have to get by with some general advice:
Have a sharp knife, trim the ends and cut the onions into half moons
as thin as you can. Now might be a good time for that cleaver
purchase. The TFS #1 REALLY shines at this sort of bulk chopping
work as you'll see later in the week.

Anyway, after your onions are in ribbons heat your biggest sauce pan
with a good amount of butter and olive oil. A quarter cup and a
1/4 stick is about right. Throw in your onions and let them sweat on
medium.

After they have reduced to about 20% of what they once were you need
to clear your mind and put aside anything that you needed to do for
the next 10 or so minutes because you're going to crank the heat and
stir. Move your gas to medium-high-ish and start moving the onions
around. You want to get them nice and brown. Brown is flavor people.

Once your onions start to get nice and brown you want to add more
butter and toss in 2-4 tablespoons of flour. Stir this up well and
let it cook in. Take your time or your soup will taste like a
freaking biscuit. That flour needs to cook the bready rawness out of
it, about 5 minutes.

By this point your onions should be very small (compared to when you
started) and very brown.

Next you want to deglaze the pan with some wine (white or red, not
oaky tasting!) and get all the shit on the pan bottom into the
liquid. Done? Good.

Now all you have to do is add enough stock to give the whole thing a
nice consistency. NOT TOO THIN!

I mean, people, it's just onions. Live a little and splurge on
an extra bag of them instead of making it thin with stock.

Obviously homemade beef stock made from roasted marrow bones would
be best but it was too cold to do anything or go anywhere so I used
the boxed hippy stuff and bit of quickie stuff I made from the peels
and ends. Choose your battles people. Being an ingredient freak all
the time will kill you.

Now all you need to do is let it simmer until the flour from the
onion pot thickens up the stock. At this point you could toast up
some croutes by brushing olive oil on french bread chunks, pour in a
tipple of Cognac and grate your Gruyere. I didn't toast and bread as
I had no baguette or Cognac so I just poured in some bourbon and
called it a day.

Purists would place it in crocks and bake in the oven but I find
that technique to be overwrought, over-hot and too rich for even my
blood. Just a little grated Swiss is a nice middle ground.

Eat, my bishes! Eat!

Posted by tom.murder.murder.marcyville


  From: The Grocery Guy                 
 
MMMMM-------------------------------------------------



Cheers

YK Jim


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