Whole Lotta Tears...

We had some time this afternoon for a quick lunch so I thought I'd return to CL's Soup chapter for a warming and simple soup.

56. Busker's Onion Soup - *Soup*

The title above doesn't necessarily imply the reaction to the taste of the soup, but rather the process of making it. There were a load of onions, and a load of tears.

Tom's variation of french onion soup is broadly speaking a veggie version of onion soup. He notes that most french onion soups actually are made in a 'slowly simmered beef broth' and writes that even some veggie dishes, like the soup, in French restaurants seem to still have a hint of meat products in them. I could definitely relate. I am not a vegetarian, but am not particularly excited with various meat products. So when I went to Paris in my early 20's, I was hugely disappointed by the food. I'm probably the only person to say this in the world, but the food in Paris sucked! LOL. Now I imagine all of you throwing your baguettes at me! All I wanted was some friggin' quiche! And what did I get?! Some friggin' quiche with friggin' ham in it! I mean, could the French possibly make anything without ham??? Ok, that was the past.

I actually don't mind beef or beef stock at all, but Tom points out that a gorgeous copper-colored stock could be made from the skins of onions and garlic. I was intrigued! So I chucked by Knorr beef stock cubes to the side and went for the onion skin stock variation! (At this point I should note that I totally don't get the title Tom chose for his recipe - I checked Brit slang dictionaries and buskers are people that perform music on the street for money -- erm, what does that have to do with soup?! Ok never mind.)

So, as I wrote, the soup was really composed of two parts. The onions and garlic that are sweated down, and the onion skin stock.

For the recipe, since I halved it, I had to chop up four onions, but that was a heck of a lot of onions. I was crying halfway through... and Rafa was doing the dishes next to me.

Me: Mother f-er, mother f-er!!!

Rafa: You crying like a baby??

Me: Fucking hurts; they hurt, they hurt!!! Ahhhhhh!

Ok, so I got over it and continued on. I also chopped up some garlic and added it to a pan with melted butter and oil, along with the onions. Some salt was sprinkled on top of the onions and garlic, and the lid was put on so that they could sweat for about a half an hour.

In a separate pot I added the onion and garlic skins to about a liter of water with a bay leaf.

I let this simmer away while the onions and garlic were cooking. I had to admit I looked at the 'busked' stock a bit suspiciously as I could not in my wildest dreams imagine the clear liquid becoming the color of a penny - hmmmn, we'll just see about that Tom.

After the onions and garlic were softened substantially, I turned up the heat and added some white wine to bubble away for a few minutes. Then, I strained the stock, and got this glorious creation! Sorry I doubted you, Tom.

I added the stock to the onions and garlic and let this bubble away for another half hour or so. Towards the end of cooking, I made some parmesan toasts, which were basically grated poorman'sgrana on some baguette slices and put under the broiler in my oven.

So the verdict: We didn't love it. I really tried to pinpoint exactly what it needed, but it just tasted like it needed something more. I think the more would probably be some salt - it tasted very oniony, yes, but still bland. Perhaps the more authentic version of using beef stock would have worked better. Who knows? Even though Rafa didn't like it too much, he still managed to finish his bowl and mine - and he's eating the leftovers tomorrow. He actually said, 'this would really be good with beef pieces in here'. LOL. He is the ultimate carnivore!

Well it's not the end of the world. Loads more soup recipes to try, and even one that is 'boozy'. Should be interesting. ;)