Melted Onion Panade - delicious!

And to friends in Padstow may I say Oss Oss!  I’m sad I can’t make it there this year.

To business ...

The other day I cooked and ate a strange and marvellous thing; a panade which is generally deemed to be part of the soup family but also, I think, is related to the bread and butter pudding clan, a bit strata-ish if you are an American. 

Melted Onion Panade – for 4

Please use good (leftover) bread for this; I like sourdough,  because it goes well with the onions (and I make my own sourdough) but any good rustic substantial sort of bread will do.

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3 large onions

3 tbsp olive oil

350g good bread – thickly sliced

About 500ml good beef stock (or other if you prefer) – hot

200g grated cheese

~   Melt the onions in the olive oil and when utterly tender turn up the heat and stir till starting to caramelise.

~   Preheat the oven to 350°F/180ºC/160ºC fan/gas 4.

~   Lay the sliced bread on a baking sheet and pop in the oven for a few minutes till dried out but not taking any colour.

~   Butter a shallow ovenproof dish and lay a third of the bread slices in it. Break them if necessary to fit in neatly.

~   Spread with half the onions and sprinkle with a third of the cheese.

~   Repeat these layers, using up all the onions.

~   Top with the final third of bread and sprinkle with the last of the cheese.

~   Pour over the stock, adding just enough to lift the top layer of bread so it starts to float. Do this gently so the cheese stays in place!

~   Cover the dish with a sheet of foil and bake for 45 minutes then remove the foil and bake another 20 minutes or so till the cheese is golden and delicious looking.

The result was a thick, warm, comforting (and cheap) sort of French Onion Porridge (OK, I admit it, I did add a tad of brandy to the stock).  Really delicious and I won’t be at all surprised if I make it again quite soon.  I wish I'd tried this before and put it in Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers although that does already contain at least 18 great ways to use up leftover bread.

Speaking of which, obviously this dish lends itself to the addition of any leftovers you have that need using up; wilted chard is traditional and kale fashionable but leftover cooked vegetables, meats, beans etc. will all work well.

In Other News ...

Great review for Luscious Ice Cream without a Machine – it’s as if she knows me

“I love ice cream but am allergic to an ingredient added to most commercial brands (propylene glycol). I have tried machines but they never worked well and most recipes required cooking first. So I was overjoyed to find this book! These are recipes anyone could do at home. I also loved the entertaining style the author writes with. She made it fun to just read the recipes. I could imagine her standing in the kitchen, sneaking sips of brandy and pieces of chocolate while whipping up ice cream. That is truly a difficult task with cookbooks, so kudos for a great concept, recipe, and writing style.”

And here is an entirely onion-appropriate photo I took on a recent trip to France, I've been waiting for a chance to post it!

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Two Cornish Fusion Beef Soups!

~  Menu  ~

Beef , Wine & Clotted Cream Soup

Nubbly Toast

Glass of Red

As you probably know, the new series of Two Greedy Italians starts tonight at 8.00 on BBC 2.  This seems, therefore, an ideal time to tell you about the excellent soup I had for lunch today.

You may remember that in my review of "Two Greedy Italians eat Italy" a few days ago I mentioned that I was making some beef stock.  Well I froze it and today I made the Beef & Wine Soup (aka Eisacktaler Weinsuppe) from the book with, of course, a few changes because that’s Life.  I had no double cream so used clotted, Cornish-Italian Fusion, and also I added some shreds of beef from the stock.  

Beef & Wine Soup 

My version for one! 

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a bowl’s-worth of lovely rich beef stock

a goodly splash of white wine

a slice or 2 of nubbly bread

a knob of butter *** ~ scroll down for a slightly rude joke

a pinch of ground cinnamon

1 tbsp or so of clotted cream

a generous grating of Parmesan cheese

~   Simmer together the stock and wine for a minute.

~   Remove from the heat and set aside.

~   Fry the bread in the butter till crisp and golden.

~   Sprinkle the toast with the cinnamon arrange it in the bowl.

~   Stir the cream and a spoonful of grated parmesan into the soup and reheat gently till warm.

~   Pour over the toast and sprinkle with more parmesan.

The soup was quick, cheap, easy and truly delicious; my kind of food.  This is something I will definitely make again just as soon as I’ve assembled some more beef scraps.

If, however, you fancy something similar but more time consuming substantial try my version of

Onion Soup Gratinée OR Runny Onion Gravy topped with Cheese on Toast

This is a quick, easy and no doubt inauthentic version of the classic French Onion Soup.  As above really good, rich, beefy homemade stock make a big difference to the finished soup.

1 medium onion

15 g butter OR 1 tablespoon of olive oil

pinch of salt

glug of dry white wine

a bowl of lovely rich beef stock

a little flour - optional

a thick slices or two of good bread, toasted

Grated Gruyère or possibly Davidstow Cornish Crackler!

brandy – optional-ish

~   Cook the onions as described here; The Best Way to Cook Onions. 

~   When utterly tender urn up the heat and cook, stirring, till the it starts to caramelised and, to an extent, to stick on the bottom of the pan.  Just a bit, mind you.

~   Add the white wine and stir to dissolve any lovely onioniness from the bottom of the pan. …

~   I don’t think it is traditional to add flour to the classic French version of the soup but I always add a little; t makes the soup easier to eat as it is more likely to stay on the spoon.  So, if you agree, stir in a little flour to make a paste.  If you don’t, don’t!

~  Add the stock and bring to a boil, stirring.  Turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. 

~  Taste and season

To serve pour a little brandy into the soup bowl, ladle in the soup, top each bowl with a slice or two of toasted bread and sprinkle with grated cheese.  Gruyere is traditionally used in France, in England a good mature Cheddar is a pleasant alternative; not a substitute for Gruyere but delicious in its own right.   Flash the soup and its topping under a hot grill or put in a hot oven for a few seconds to melt and bubble the cheese.  OR top with crunchy croutons and cheese for trouble free eating.

I have been to France a few times but never been to Italy which is odd because I am quite well travelled.  It is, however, top of my list of places I want to visit, one reason being the food.  Reading “Two Greedy Italians” some of the dishes surprised me, the Beef and Wine Soup being a case in point; even its name is a bit German because, so the book tells us, the soup is from the eastern side of Italy, near Germany.  Because of this I did wonder if the recipes in the book are authentic but following my book review of the other day an Italian lady who is a member of my Facebook Group “Sudden Lunch”  wrote as follows …

“I saw the 1st series … and yes it was proper Italian food, plus Carluccio, although a Southerner, has a very good knowledge of Northern Italian cuisine (which does not involve all that pasta and pizza, but lots of rice, polenta, etc), so the 2 together give a balanced idea of Italian food …"

***  Slightly Rude Joke!