French Onion Toasts
Source of Recipe
From "The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook" by Deb Perelman
Recipe Introduction
"I am convinced that, no matter what ails you, French onion soup is the answer. Never cooked before? Don't think you'll be able to pull off the kind of cooking you believe you can only experience in a restaurant? Start with onion soup. Have only $5 to spend on dinner? Refrigerator is almost bare? Onion soup is your friend. Want your home to have a transcendent aroma bouncing off every wall, the kind that's so distracting that you don't even know or care what's on the stove, only that you must have it now? Onion soup is waiting for you. My love for onion soup is so profound that I wanted to take it to places with me too, but, really, there's nothing portable about soup. And so I made it handy, and now the most difficult thing is not taking it everywhere with me, because it's exactly what I want to eat at parties. The thing is, when I go to a party, I rarely want to bite into some really funky Brie that an enthusiastic cheese soup guy recommended, forgetting to mention that it would make guests smell mostly like a cave all night. I don't want greasy mini-quiche or foie gras-stuffed eggs. I want the very best foods I know how to make made portable and I want them to go well with wine. I want this. And I hope you like it too."
List of Ingredients
◦ 2 tablespoons butter
◦ 1 tablespoon olive oil
◦ 2 pounds (about 4 medium-large) yellow onions, cut into dice of about ⅓ inch (about 4 cups)
◦ teaspoon table salt
◦ Pinch of sugar
◦ 1 tablespoon Cognac, brandy, or vermouth (optional)
◦ 1 cup low-sodium beef, veal, or mushroom stock or broth
◦ Freshly ground black pepper
◦ Thirty-two -inch-thick slices from a long baguette
◦ About 2 cups (8 ounces) finely grated Gruyre cheese (you might have a little extra)
Recipe
Melt the butter and olive oil together in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions to the pan, toss them gently with the butter and oil, reduce the heat to medium or medium-low, and cover the pan. Cook the onions for 15 minutes, then remove the lid, stir in the salt and sugar, and saut without the lid for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the onions are fully caramelized and have taken on a deep golden color.
Pour in Cognac, if using it, and the stock, then turn the heat all the way up and scrape up any brown bits stuck to the pan. Simmer the mixture until the broth almost completely disappears (a small amount of slosh is okay; you don't want to cook it off so much that the onions seem dry), about 5 to 10 minutes. Adjust the salt, if needed, and season with freshly ground black pepper.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with foil. Dollop each round of bread with most of a tablespoon of the onion mixture (depending on the size of your baguette, 1 full tablespoon of onion may be too much to keep neatly on top). Add 1 tablespoon grated cheese to the top of each toast, mounding it a bit so it all stays in place. Bake the toasts for about 15 minutes, until bubbly and a bit browned. Serve immediately.
Makes approximately 32 toasts,
about 2 cups cooked onion mixture
❧ Do Ahead:
The onion mixture can be made ahead of time and kept at room temperature for a couple hours in an airtight container. Longer, it should be kept in the fridge and gently rewarmed when needed.
|
|
member logon
