French Onion Soup.

Remember a few weeks ago when I was saying it was too warm for soup? Considering the rainy weather a few weeks ago, I don't feel like posting this recipe now is too out-of-line.

I do have to admit, however, that I made this soup on a perfectly warm, sunny day--Father's Day, actually. My dad requested French Onion Soup (not expecting me to actually make it, I'm pretty sure), but since I'd missed cooking for more than one person, I accepted his challenge.

I've never made French Onion Soup, or ordered it off a menu, and really have only tasted a spoonful once. We also lacked oven-proof bowls, so finishing off the soup in the broiler was also not an option.

But with a little creativity, I think I managed to pull off French Onion Soup without a broiler. Be sure to bookmark this recipe for cold winter nights.

French Onion Soup
Adapted from Bon Appetit, May 1991, with elements from Smitten Kitchen's recipe

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter (I used a little more than this, actually)
6 onions (about 3-4 pounds), thinly sliced (use a variety of onions you like, each will yield a slightly different taste)
A few pinches of sugar
6 garlic cloves, sliced
1/2 cup dry white wine
6 cups canned beef broth (one of the big cans)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 sourdough baguette with a good crust
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup grated Swiss cheese (I bought Jarlsberg...you should treat yourself to this, it'll totally change the way you think about Swiss. Gruyere would also be fantastic)

1. Thinly slice the onions with a mandoline slicer. In a heavy-bottomed soup pot, melt the butter. Over medium high heat, add onions and a few pinches of sugar. Season with salt and pepper. Once starting to color, turn down to low heat and add the garlic. Saute uncovered until the onions are very tender and brown (about 45 minutes). Remember to stir frequently, add more butter if necessary, and not let the onions burn.

2. Add wine and reduce to glaze (about 3 minute). In a small bowl, whisk the mustard with a splash of beef broth and add to the onions. Add the rest of the beef broth and simmer for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Meanwhile, slice the baguette diagonally into 1/2" slices. Brush each side with olive oil. In a 400 degree oven, toast for 4 minutes. Flip and pile with grated Swiss cheese. Return to oven until the cheese has melted.

4. To serve, ladle soup into bowls. Top with 3 baguette slices.

I think my dad was impressed.

Hummus, deconstructed.

&
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So now you have bread. Undoubtedly you have your favorite way to enjoy it--with wine, dipped in olive oil and cayenne pepper, spread with peanut butter, toasted with jam, smeared with nutella and topped with bananas...the list goes on.

But here's another way to do things. This sandwich recipe is almost like a deconstructed hummus. I was intrigued primarily because I love chickpeas, but also because there's a potato masher involved. Lord knows I love my potato masher, and have found enough uses for it to justify the dollar I spent on it.

This sandwich is also vegan (shhh!) and probably somewhat healthy, but please, don't let that stop you. It keeps well wrapped up in a sandwich or in the fridge and, depending on how much olive oil you 'glug' in, will not make your bread mushy.

Deconstructed Hummus Sandwich

Courtesy SmittenKitchen

Makes about 4 sandwiches

1 loaf no-knead bread

1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 tablespoons pitted, halved and very thinly sliced black olives

1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Zest and juice from half a lemon

Couple good pinches of salt

A few grinds of black pepper

A few glugs of olive oil

1. Combine ingredients in a medium bowl.

2. Using the back of a fork or a potato masher, lightly smash the chickpea mixture until you're somewhere between a coarse chop and a puree. This is a wide margin of texture, I know, but you want there to still be visible pieces of chickpea but enough puree to hold the mixture together.

3. Spoon the mixture on to the bread. Use the back of the spoon to spread and condense it.

It really is that easy. The olives lend the saltiness, the lemon the acidity, the parsley a fresh taste, and the red onions a spicy note. The chickpeas are an excellent vehicle for all these strong flavors. I'd call it a well constructed deconstruction.

Here's one for a bad week, as it seems many of us had:

Love Does That
Meister Eckhart

All day long a little burro labors, sometimes
with heavy loads on her back and sometimes just with worries
about things that bother only
burros.

And worries, as we know, can be more exhausting
than physical labor.

Once in a while a kind monk comes
to her stable and brings
a pear, but more
than that,

he looks into the burro's eyes and touches her ears

and for a few seconds the burro is free
and even seems to laugh,

because love does
that.

Love frees.

X marks the spot.

They're opening an Auntie Anne's Pretzels on campus. My M-W-F lunch friends have been sitting across from it for weeks, (im)patiently waiting for it to open. The smoothie place went out. The blue and white tile went up. We watched training happen. Today I left work ten minutes early to stand in line before lunch, and got two pretzels.

I love a good soft pretzel. Unfortunately, when I tried my hand at them, I was less than successful.

These pretzel rolls, however, made me feel much better about my pretzel making ability. I think they count as bread, since there is yeast involved, and I used them to create mini-sandwiches with some herb roasted turkey from Whole Foods and Dijon for lunch a few weeks ago.

Here's the recipe:

Pretzel Rolls
2 3/4 cups bread flour
1 envelope quick-rising yeast, or regular
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (about) hot water (125°F to 130°F)
Cornmeal
8 cups water
1/4 cup baking soda
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg white, beaten
Coarse salt

1. Combine bread flour, 1 envelope yeast, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon sugar in a large bowl with a whisk.
2. Using a wooden spoon, gradually pour hot water while mixing, adding enough water to form smooth elastic dough. Bop it around for about a minute to "knead" it.
3. Grease medium bowl (Use a butter wrapper--I save them in the freezer for the next time I need one). Add dough to bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, then towel; let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 35 minutes (or longer if you didn't use quick-rising yeast).
4. Flour baking sheet, or clear area of counter. Punch dough down and knead on lightly floured surface until smooth. Divide into 8 pieces (So that's in half, in half again, and then one more time in half for you mathphobic among you, or me, who that helped). Form each dough piece into ball. Place dough balls on a floured baking sheet. Cover with towel and let dough balls rise until almost doubled in volume, about 20 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease (or use parchment, like I did) another baking sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal. Bring 8 cups water to boil in large saucepan. Add baking soda and 2 tablespoons sugar (water will foam up). Add 4 rolls and cook 30 seconds per side. Using slotted spoon, transfer rolls to prepared sheet. Repeat with remaining rolls.
6. Using a serrated knife, cut an "X" on the top of each roll. Brush rolls with egg white glaze. Sprinkle rolls generously with coarse salt. Bake rolls until brown, about 25 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool 10 minutes. Serve rolls warm or room temperature.

They don't taste like Auntie Anne's, but they're good. Maybe one day I'll hunt down that recipe. Or work there long enough to steal it.

Featherlight Yeast Rolls.

If Paula Deen is the queen of Southern cooking, then Edna Lewis is God. Edna Lewis ran Cafe Nicholson in New York--where greats such as Truman Capote, Harper Lee, William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams were frequent guests.

Her essay, "What is Southern?", the cornerstone of Gourmet's January 2008 issue profiling Southern cuisine, is only the beginning of our love affair. She says in the essay, "Southern is a great yeast roll, the dough put down overnight to rise and the next morning shaped into rolls and baked. Served hot form the oven, they are light as a dandelion in a high wind." Need I say more? The recipe--which calls for mashed potatoes--was intriguing enough to be my first foray into the kitchen this semester.

The dough (in the top photo), rose overnight in the fridge, completely filling the bowl which you see pictured there. Like the soft pretzel experience, I found myself completely inept at shaping the dough. The middle photo should show neat, even rows of six, four across. The good news is they still taste good, though they may not be aesthetically pleasing. It was the perfect recipe for the snowy day we had today, and a good excuse to blast the heat--the dough rises better when its warm.

Featherlight Yeast Rolls

Makes 24 rolls.

1 russet or baking potato (.5 lbs, or so), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

1/2 stick of unsalted butter, divided

1/2 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 (1/4 oz) package active dry yeast

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1. Cover the potato with cold water in a medium saucepan (more than 2 cups for sure). Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, until very tender (about 10 minutes). Reserve 1 cup cooking liquid (I used a ladle), then drain the potato well.

2. Melt 2.5 tablespoons butter. Mash 2 tablespoons of the butter with the potato. Stir in milk, salt, and sugar.

3. Cool 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid (I put mine in the freezer just after gathering it) and add yeast. Let stand for five minutes until foamy (you'll know). Stir into potato mixture.

4. Stir flour into the potato mixture with a wooden spoon until a soft dough forms.

5. Turn out dough onto a floured surface and knead, dusting surface and hands with just enough flour to keep dough from sticking, until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes (This is a sticky dough, so keep the flour handy).

6. Brush a large bowl with the remaining .5 tablespoon of melted butter, then turn the dough in the bowl to coat. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise in the refrigerator for 8 to 12 hours.

7. Punch down dough (No--really--punch it down, it is so fun. Do not knead, punch) and halve. Roll each half into a 12 inch long log on a very lightly floured surface with lightly floured hands. Cut each log into 12 equal pieces and roll each into a ball. Arrange into rows of 6 by 4 in a buttered (I under-did the butter--really grease that pan. I'm thinking about trying parchment next time) 13x9x2 baking pan. Cover pan with a kitchen towel (not terry cloth, though).

8. Let rolls rise in a warm room until doubled (they will fill the pan), about 1 to 1.5 hours.

9. Preheat the oven to 375 with the rack in the middle.

10. Brush the tops of the rolls with the remaining 1.5 tablespoons of melted butter. Bake until golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Loosen edges with a sharp knife, then transfer rolls to a rack to cool slightly.