French Onion Soup

Ingredients
10-12 lbs mixed onions (I used Vidalia/Yellow/Red mixed depending on what's available)
750 ml white wine (semi-dry Chardonnay or Springgate's Susquehanna Sweet White)
1 qt natural apple cider
2 gallons beef broth
Olive oil
Sea Salt

A bouquet garni composed of several sprigs each:
  Thyme
  Rosemary
  Bay Leaves
  Oregano
  Sage

For serving:
Toasted bread
Shredded cheese

Instructions:
You will need two stock pots. One to preheat the stock and a larger one to actually make the soup.

Peel and cut onions in half. I use a food processor slicer to slice all of the halves into thin slices.

Add beef broth to a stock pot and slowly bring to a simmer while cooking the onions. Since I usually have my beef broth frozen, starting this now gets it ready for when I need it later. If you have unfrozen beef broth, this still helps get the soup boiling faster when you assemble it in the large stock pot.

Heat a large skillet on medium heat (I have a 15" Lodge cast iron skillet for this.) When hot, add Olive oil to coat the bottom. Fill the skillet half full of onion slices. Sprinkle on about 1/2 t Sea Salt. Add another layer of onions and salt again. Allow the onions to heat up and begin to fry a bit. Be patient. You want them to caramelize slowly to a dark mahogany color without burning. Once you begin to see color on the bottom, gently roll the pile to put uncaramalized slices on the bottom. Keep going, slowly stirring until the entire batch has softed and caramelized.  Remove that batch to your unheated large stock pot to hold for now. Repeat with the rest of the onions, one batch at a time.

On the last batch of onions, once they have caramelized, add the apple cider, stir to deglaze the skillet and let simmer to reduce by at least 1/2.

Continue to stir while adding the bottle of wine, then allow to simmer to reduce by 1/2 again.

Add the contents of the skillet to the rest of the caramelized onions. Add the preheated beef broth as well. Assemble your bouquet garni and put it in the stock pot as well (I use a large tea ball to keep the herbs all together and out of the soup.)

Bring to a low boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 1 hour (longer if you wish). Simmering integrates the herb flavors into the soup.





Prepare to serve:
Fill an oven-ready bowl to within 1/2" of the top. Add a piece of toasted bread and cover with cheese (I prefer Gruyere, but also like the taste of aged sharp Provolone or good Swiss cheese.) Place bowls on a baking sheet and put under the oven broiler until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve immediately.

Baked Sweet & Sour Chicken

Ingredients
1 lb of chicken breast, cut bite sized (I had 1 lb+ breasts from Karns, so I used just one)
1/2 t ground pepper

1/4 t salt

1½ cup cornstarch
3 eggs, beaten

Canola or other high smoke point oil for frying chicken pieces

Sauce Ingredients

3-4T ketchup

1/2 c cider or wine vinegar

1 c white sugar (you could use brown)

1-2 T soy sauce (to taste)

1-2 t garlic powder (don't use garlic salt - you don't need extra salt in this)

1 1/2 T cornstarch

Veggies

1 can pineapple, drained (I used an entire fresh pineapple here - yummy)

2 large sweet peppers (colors make it look nice)

1 large onion

sliced button mushrooms (optional)

Instructions

coat a 9x13 pan with oil. preheat oven to 325 F

Put cornstarch and salt & pepper in a quart (or larger) sized plastic container with tight fitting lid.

Separate cut up chicken chunks and drop into container. Once all pieces are in, cover with lid and shake to completely coat with starch/salt/pepper mixture. 

Heat a large skillet on medium-high heat and add oil to coat the bottom. When the oil shimmers, it is ready to cook. Remove pieces of chicken from starch mixture a few at a time and dip to coat in beaten eggs then straight into the skillet. The chicken should only be in a single layer, so work in batches. Brown on all sides and remove placing in a layer in the bottom of the 9x13 pan. When all chicken is cooked, allow to cool while making the sauce.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together Sauce ingredients making sure sugar is dissolved.

Add Veggies to the top of the chicken in the 9x13 pan, then pour sauce mixture over all, spreading to cover as much as possible.

Bake on a middle rack. Remove to stir and coat all Veggie and Chicken pieces evenly every 15 minutes or so. Total bake time is about 60 minutes.

Remove and serve over rice.

Crostini with Goat Cheese, Cremini Mushroom Duxelles & Balsamic Glaze

(photo pending)

Ingredients

For Duxelles
8oz Cremini Mushrooms, cleaned
2 lg shallots, skins & core removed
4-5 cloves garlic
Olive oil & butter for saute

For Goat Cheese
8 oz goat cheese (room temperature)
OR
8 oz Neufchatel Cheese (sold as light Cream Cheese) (room temperature)
1/4 c Grated Parmesan Cheese

Balsamic Glaze
1 1/2 c Balsamic Vinegar
1/4 c white sugar

Crostini
1 baguette
olive oil

Instructions
Pour Balsamic Vinegar and sugar into a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer. Reduce to 6-8 oz or about 1/3 of original volume.

Meanwhile, place mushrooms, garlic and shallots in a food processor and pulse to a fine chopped texture. Heat olive oil and butter in a saute pan over medium high heat. When melted and combined, add mushroom/garlic/shallot mixture. Saute to sweat and soften - about 8-10 minutes. Add thyme, salt & pepper and mix well. Remove from heat.

If substituting for goat cheese, in a separate bowl, mix Neufchatel Cheese and Parmesan.

With a bread knife, cut baguette diagonally into 3/8" thick pieces. Brush on olive oil on both sides and either toast in a toaster oven or broiler until brown and crispy (not burned!)

Assembly:
Spread a light coating of goat cheese (or substitute) on each crostini.
Spoon about 1 teaspoon of the mushroom/garlic/shallot mixture on top of the cheese.
Arrange pieces on a serving tray or plate, then drizzle a few drops of the balsamic glaze on top of the mushroom mixture on each.

Serve immediately.

Anise Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients
1 c unsalted butter
1/2 c confectioners sugar
1 1/2 t ground anise seed
1/4 t cinnamon
1 t vanilla extract
2 c flour

Instructions
Cream together butter & confectioners sugar until fluffy.

Add ground anise, cinnamon & vanilla extract and mix thoroughly.

Stir in flour.

Divide dough in half and form each half into a 1 1/2 inch diameter log wrapped in parchment paper. Wrap tightly and evenly. Refrigerate in a bag for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cover two sheet pans with parchment paper. Remove logs of dough from the refrigerator and slice into 1/4" slices. Place on baking sheets 1/2" apart.

Bake for 5 minutes at 375, reduce temperature to 300 degrees and bake an additional 10 minutes.

Serve with a 1/2 t dollop of Nouveau Merlot Wine Jelly in the center.

Nouveau Merlot Wine Jelly

Ingredients
3 1/2 c Merlot
1/2 c lemon juice
1 packet Suregel Pectin
4 1/2 c white sugar

Instructions
Put wine, lemon juice and pectin in a large saucepan and heat to boiling, stirring frequently.

When wine mixture boils fully, remove from heat and add the sugar all at once. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Return to heat on high stirring constantly. Bring to a full boil for 1 minute.

Remove from heat.

Gently skim any foam from the top of the liquid.

Pour into sterilized jars leaving 1/2" headroom. Add new lids and rings. Process for 10 minutes. Allow to cool undisturbed for 24 hours. Make sure all jars have sealed.

Yields 4 - 12oz jelly jars + 1 - 8oz jelly jar or 56oz in total.

Springgate Nouveau Merlot 2015 Adventure

This week I was blessed by my friends at Springgate to get 2 whole gallons of this year's Merlot fresh from its first fermentation - before sulphates, oaking, blending, etc. Fresh, "raw" Merlot. While they were drawing the two one-gallon carboys, I got to have my first taste along with Trevor, one of Marty's winery minions. It was amazing - no acid, no bite, just pure grapey, fruity smoothness.

Now onto what I did first. The plan had been to get the Merlot two days earlier. I had gathered ingredients for a nice beef stew - a nice 7 pound boneless round roast, a couple pounds of carrots & onions, about 1/2 pound of Shiitake mushrooms. But at the last minute, I had to go with some Cabernet Franc instead because of timing and equipment issues to extract the Merlot. So the beef stew came off great, but sans Merlot (you can see details for the stew HERE).

So Wednesday night, I started my first round with the Merlot. I had determined to make 1 gallon into Wine Jelly. But by the time I had cleaned everything and was ready to make jelly (I made it in four smaller batches) I had time to make the first two - plus I needed to scrounge up more jars anyway. So the first night - success.

Last night, I started earlier, my wife managed to find enough jars and I finished off the jelly and the first gallon of Merlot.

Now what to do with the rest?

The plan is:
1 qt - mix with gelatin an whip over ice to make a "mousse". Combined with a dark chocolate mousse for parfaits. This is similar to something I've done before with Panna Cotta with Dark Chocolate Ganache & Merlot Wine Gelatin Whip

1 qt - Merlot Syrup to use over ice cream.

As for the other remaining quarts - stay tuned!

Beef Stew

(Sorry - I missed my photo opportunity!)

Ingredients
5 lb Beef round - cut roughly into 1 to 1 1/2 inch cubes
2 1/2 lbs carrots, cleaned and cut into 3" pieces
6 medium onions, cleaned, sliced
2 1/2 c red wine (I used Cabernet Franc)
3 c beef stock
leaves of fresh rosemary (I got mine from about 10 inches of stem)
4 bay leaves
1/2 t salt
1 t fresh ground pepper

1/2 lb shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and sliced 1/4" wide

1 1/2 c cold water
12 T cornstarch

Instructions
Put everything except the mushrooms in a large crockpot.
Turn on high to reach bubbling.
Turn down to low to cook for 3-4 hours
Turn on high and add mushrooms - cook for 2 hours.
Mix cold water and corn starch - add a bit at a time to the crockpot, around the perimeter.
Gently stir crockpot contents to distribute the cornstarch slurry.

Continue to cook on high bringing back to bubbling.
If the carrots are cooked through, reduce to low and hold to serve when ready.