Four-hour French Onion Soup

Testing out a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated that took about 4 hours total cooking time.


6 large onions, sliced 1/4“ thick lengthwise, added to a dutch oven sprayed liberally with cooking oil, with 3 TB of butter



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One hour at 400*, scraped, stirred, and back in for another 90 minutes or so with the lid ajar

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90 minutes or so later, way more reduced and building some nice fond and caramelization

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With about a cup of water, you add 1/4 at a time and deglaze the pan, then add 1/2 cup of dry sherry. While working on my roast beef and gravy sandwich on a Portuguese roll, I left too much time pass, and scorched my fond.

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4 cups of chicken broth and 2 cups of beef broth, plus some water. 30 minutes to simmer, covered, and I hoped I could rescue the fond.

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It looked and smelled great, but the scorched part did give it a burnt taste. Still, it had to be tried.

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Ready for 4 minutes under the broiler with a slice of baguette and gruyere...

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And we have soup!


An important lesson to learn: this was an easy recipe, and there’s lots of down time. But when the recipe needs you, it needs you focused. Learn from me, grasshopper.

Lentil soup

Coming soon… have to spend some time setting up the blog writer…

Like the 4th of July...

Made some flank last night, and there was something in the marinade that made the burners sparkle. Not a great shot, but I've never seen flames look like this.

Fortunately, the steak turned out as usual - perfect!

What's wrong with this picture?

"Hi, I'm Paula Deen. I've just finished grilling these meats, and am now resting my arm on a flaming hot hood."

Ouch.

Start 'em early

Homemade chicken nuggets on a Jack-and-daddy night.

OK, two things dad needs to work on: pan-frying and flash photography. They actually didn't burn, but I should have flattened the cutlets first - and the parmesan we added to the bread crumbs fried pretty dark. Stir fried soy green beans and cucumbers in an improvised vinegar/chili oil/sugar sauce turned out much better.

Adobo-Citrus Grilled Chicken Thighs

Last night was a late night for me... a really late night... as a friend from junior high was in town, whom I hadn't seen in roughly 25 years. Friends came over, wine and cheese were had, karaoke was sung, and the clock kept moving forward well past my bedtime. I knew enough to make sure we knew what we were going to do for dinner, so it could be done early. Frozen chicken thighs at the ready, I went hunting online for a good recipe. Most required lots of marinating time and more ingredients than I had, and I didn't want to run to the store. I came across this one here - anything with chipotle in adobo is tops in my book.

 

Grilling at night in 60* weather - is there nothing better?

 

The marinade sounded too good not to boil off and reduce a bit. Until I tasted it, that is. Waaay too spicy with the food-processed chipotle, although flavorful. After the aforementioned wine intake last night, I best leave my delicate system of today as unperturbed as possible.

Wife liked the dish, as she's a fan of thighs. I prefer grilled marinated breasts myself, leaving the thighs for slow cooked food. Either way, it was a good night to fire up the grill.

I somehow doubt my HOA will allow this in my backyard

Pig roast at a local farm last weekend.

Beer can chicken

It wasn't the big blowout I wanted for the end of summer, just a chicken and some brisket that wife made in a slow cooker (good, but no comparison to a smoked 6-pounder). It was a beautiful day however, made better by great weather and homemade blueberry-vodka spiked frozen lemonade. Also, I spent two hours on Saturday cleaning out the 620 gas grill. Many parts are beyond ever getting really clean, but for the first time I paid close attention to the burner tubes. No more orange flames or clogged holes, though I was surprised it seemed to take longer to get up to temperature the first time on. Not so the second time. Most importantly, I remembered to turn off the gas and unhook the line *first*.

 

Anticipation...

 

 

Self portrait - getting my art on.

 

Lime butter for the corn, nicely warmed on the side burner, which I have come to love.

 

C'mon - what are summer cookouts without corn?

 

 

Nom.

 

My last two Saturday's in September are wide open. Smoked brisket will be had. I think I have to try our some pork shoulder too. I'm much more amenable to long BBQ days when it's not in the 80's or 90's.

PSMO beach and all the steak I can eat

I finally got some grill time in last night, with some neighbors over for a little get together. Wife picked up a PSMO from the Amish market, and never having trimmed or served one, I went straight to Mike's instructions and Cook's Illustrated recipe. Dogs and burgers for the kids, and the moms did all the salads and sides. Just under $100 for the cut, which fed 8 hungry adults, and I still have leftovers.

You'll have to pardon the shots - I'm out of practice with the camera...

Pre-trimming.

 

Trimmed up and tied up. I wound up cutting off the butt, so instead of folding over the tip I just tied the butt and tip together for a relatively even thickness.

 

Seared for 2 minutes a side, then finished for 20 minutes off the coals. Incredibly easy...

 

... and tasty. Some thinner areas came out a bit more on the medium side than I wanted, but nothing was cooked beyond that.

It was good to get back to the grills, though they really need a thorough cleaning this weekend - my S620 is in front of the dryer exhaust vent, which was cleaned last week, blowing lint all over the grill, which got inside it even though it was covered. And while wife is finally learning to use it, she's been a little heavy on marinades, which have somehow dripped into the burner tubes and caused a lot of orange flames. Cleaning all that up will be tomorrow afternoon's task.

Not much else planned for the holiday weekend, besides taking some kids to a water park tomorrow and finally replacing our dishwasher. But I don't feel like I really grilled/BBQ'd enough this summer, so I may have to make up for it on Monday.

Joy.

Fireworks.