Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions

 

I’m falling in love with my slow cooker.  We’ve known each other a long time but we’ve never really connected.  We keep giving each other a chance, meeting up every now and then.  All our friends think we’d be great together but until now, we just haven’t clicked.

Lots of relationships require a catalyst and for us it’s this cookbook.

 

I picked it up at Costco the other day; if you look closely you can see  sticky notes marking recipes.  The first one that caught my eye was creamy onion soup.  Not for the soup so much as the hands-off way of caramelizing onions.

I love a good caramelized onion but I don’t have the patience to stir a pot for 30-40 minutes.  Mine usually  lack that satisfying deep brown hue that promises sweet and savory taste or worse, they burn.

My slow cooker, the book told me, could change all that.  It whispered sweet nothings about caramelizing onions to perfection while I spent the day playing.  Promises of tempting aromas and a pot of slow cooked onions beckoned  and before I knew it I’d sliced up 6 Vidalia onions. 

  

I tossed them with dried thyme and olive oil and added a bay leaf.  This flurry of activity happened early in the morning and when we came home from an afternoon of beachcombing they looked like this:

I really love it when I can use up leftovers and make a fabulous meal at the same time.  I had broth from beef braised in red wine which I heated in a separate pan, I toasted cubes of French bread in olive oil, kosher salt and herbs de Provence then put them all together with a fistful of grated gruyere for a hearty and quick French Onion Soup.

The best part is that I have onions leftover for my next fabulous meal…blue cheese and caramelized onion tart?  Gourmet burgers? Veggie sandwich with caramelized onions or maybe goat cheese crostini with …you guessed it: caramelized onions.

My slow cooker and I are on again; we have plans to get together to make crème brulee next week.

While perfect for French Onion Soup these onions were quite wet.  A quick sauté in a hot pan will remove the excess liquid and make them perfect for just about anything.  Store in the fridge for a week or freeze them for up to three months.

Following is the recipe for Slow Cooked French Onion soup.  My soup was delicious but would be impossible to duplicate without making beef braised in red wine first and using that fabulous broth.  (The strength of any French onion soup is in the beef broth.  Amp up store bought with a bit of cognac or brandy for this recipe).

Creamy Onion Soup

From: Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever by Diane Phillips

½ cup unsalted butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

5 large sweet onions, such as Vidalia

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

1 bay leaf

½ cup white wine

5 cups beef stock

1 ½ cup shredded gruyere cheese

Turn a 5-7 quart slow cooker on high, add the butter and oil to the insert, cover until the butter is melted.

Remove the cover and add the onions, sugar, thyme, salt, pepper and bay leaf. Stir the onions until they are covered with seasonings and butter.

Cover and cook on high for 7-8 hours, until they are caramelized and a deep golden brown. (I followed the recipe to here).

Remove the cover and add the wine and beef stock. Cover and cook the soup on high for an additional 30 minutes or on low for an additional hour.

Remove bay leaf before serving garnish each serving with a sprinkling of gruyere cheese.

Beef Braised in Red Wine with Truffle Oil

Okay, so it’s pot roast…but it’s really special pot roast with truffle oil and cocoa marinated overnight in red wine and brandy nestled between layers of chopped carrots, celery and onions and gently infused with thyme and garlic and bay and cooked all day. 

But worth the effort, oh so worth the effort.  Falling apart tender, juicy and packed with flavor.  Redolent of home and hearth.  Smack your lips yummy.  My house smells like childhood and hugs and that special place where food is love.

It’s taken me two years and many attempts to get it right  but this is it…the worlds most perfect pot roast.

It all started with Julia…The main recipe comes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  I’ve added a few bits like a teaspoon of cocoa, white truffle oil and some extra garlic.  I flame the broth to burn off the alcohol which can taste bitter and use a slow cooker for super tender meat. 

When it’s all done I reduce the broth and puree the vegetables then recombine the the two for a savory, intensely flavored gravy. 

There is always leftover broth and I used it to flavor everything from Udon noodles to Beef Bourguignon to French onion soup.  The leftover vegetable puree gets frozen in cubes and added to anything that needs  a flavor boost or body.

Beef Braised in Red Wine

Adapted From: Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Start With:

3 pound pot roast

To Season the Meat:

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 tablespoon white truffle oil (optional but so delicious)

For the Marinade:

1 cup each celery, onion and carrot, chopped.

2 halved cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1 tablespoon dried thyme

2 bay leaves

¼ cup minced parsley

¼ teaspoon dried cloves (Julia uses 2 whole cloves)

1 bottle red wine (Pinot Noir or Cabernet)

1/3 cup good brandy

¼ cup olive oil (Julia uses ½ cup)

Later:

1 teaspoon baking cocoa

Beef stock to cover

1 tablespoon butter; one tablespoon flour for beurre manie

Spread salt and pepper on roast then drizzle with truffle oil pressing the salt/pepper/oil mixture into the meat. Combine chopped veggies , thyme, bay leaf, ground cloves and garlic then place half this mixture in the bottom of a bowl, layer in the roast, cover with remaining veggies. Pour brandy, oil and wine to cover. Wrap and place in fridge overnight to marinate.

Next day remove roast from marinade (save marinade) and place on wire rack to drain.  Pour two tablespoons olive oil or bacon grease in large pan (I use my Le Creuset), get it smoking hot then drop in the roast that you’ve patted dry with paper towel. Sear all six sides and remove. Drain veggies (save wine marinade) and place in hot pan. Add more oil if needed. Add three cloves chopped garlic. Sauté 3-4 minutes, or until tender.

Remove veggies from pan and pour in marinade. Bring to a boil and deglaze pan. Add cocoa. Burn off any remaining alcohol.

Place all in crock pot add beef stock to cover. Cook until tender when pierced with a fork (6 hour low setting on my crock pot).

Remove and cover with foil. Puree veggies and reduce marinade by half. Thicken with beurre manie (equal parts soft butter and flour combined) if needed. Serve with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies.

6 Minute Eggs

My mother in law is one of those rare and gracious people we all want to be when we grow up.  While we lolled about in Seattle on our anniversary weekend, she babysat going so far as to share a twin bed with a roaming four year old who couldn’t sleep. 

While spreading grace and courtesy (our children behave best for Grandma) and preparing signature meals from her British upbringing, she discovered a lack in our kitchen repertoire.

She immediately set forth to put it right.  She shopped Bainbridge to no avail.  She checked a few stores in her own neighborhood.  Proving very elusive these items were finally found last week on a family trip to Mexico.

Eager for a bit of shopping I persuaded the fam. to join me in a stroll into San Jose del Cabo, a charming little town still decorated for Christmas and the New Year.  Strings of lights criss-crossed narrow streets and giant gossamer angels stood at the corners of the town square.  San José is filled with artistry; beautiful hand wrought silver, hand blown glassware, textiles, leather. 

I love vacation shopping because I can imagine I’m someone else, someone elegant and coiffed; a woman on the cutting edge of fashion.  While I flirted with the idea of red python cowboy boots, shiny and wickedly pointy,  MIL disappeared into an artisanal tableware shopped and emerged triumphant with a set of six hand-painted egg cups.

 

 

You know how sometimes you get something and use it so much that you don't know how you lived without it?  Egg cups aren't as handy as  a cable modem, but I’ve used them four times in three days so what do you know? 

The funny thing is, I’ve always been intimidated by egg cups.  Just look at them and you can see they’re an accident waiting to happen; The laws of physics state that rolling items will roll away when you put pressure on them (or maybe that's the law of probability, it will probably roll away when you try to eat it).

Anyway, it seems impossible that the egg will politely stay put while being plundered with a spoon.  A sensible egg would make a break for freedom (and end up splatting on the kitchen floor).  All well and good when you have a  Hoover-beagle standing guard at the breakfast table, but when confronted with an egg cup containing a soft boiled egg as a newlywed, I broke out in a sweat and claimed I wasn’t really a breakfast eater.

(Clearly this was early in our marriage as R did not laugh his head off at such a blatant lie.)

But, look at me now.  I love my new egg cups.  They’re so pretty and useful.  So far I’ve used them as a salt cellar,  spice holder, and teensy vase, and of course to hold soft boiled eggs…without a single splat.

 

6 Minute Eggs

If you’re really organized you’ll take your eggs out of the fridge about a half an hour before you intend to cook them.  This allows them to warm up a bit so they’re less likely to crack when you set them in boiling water.

Fill a pan with water and bring to a boil.  Turn the heat down so the water is at a simmer.  Place an egg in a tablespoon, gently set into the hot water.  Cook for six minutes then remove from heat, drain  and cover with cold water.  This stops the eggs from cooking without cooling them too much.

While your eggs are cooking put a couple pieces of bread in the toaster.

Butter your toast, slice into fingers and arrange on a plate.  Place your egg cup in the middle and serve by cutting the top off the egg with a table knife.  (This decapitated portion is called the “little potty” much to my children’s delight.  Ah the British.).  Dip toast in egg, enjoy.

West Sound Wildlife Shelter

Meet Athena, a barred owl and Mike Pratt the director of wildlife services at the West Sound Wildlife Shelter (WSWS).  We met them on a rainy Sunday at the Bloedel Reserve where Mike told us about the wildlife shelter and answered lots of questions about owls.

Did you know that owls mate for life?  That baby owls spend about a week learning how to fly and during that time are unprotected and vulnerable on the ground?  Athena, on what is thought to be her inaugural flight flew into the path of a car.  Her wing is badly damaged and she’ll never fly again.  She now serves as one of the shelter’s ambassadors.

West Sound Wildlife Shelter cared for nearly 800 wild animals last year.  The focus is on rehabilitation and their goal is that every single animal be returned to their natural habitat. 

The shelter’s website is wonderful with lots of baby animal pics and info.   I spent a happy interlude there last night reading patient stories with Little E.  WSWS is currently caring for three young bald eagles and a mature female that was shot.

By the way; you no longer need a reservation to visit the Bloedel Reserve and the paths and vistas hold a special magic on rainy days so don’t wait for summer.

The ponds are especially mesmerizing.  (Tried to insert a rainy day video here but it didn’t work. You’ll just have to imagine the tinkly sound rain makes on the ponds.) 

The camellias are blooming, can spring be far behind?

 

 

 

Food Friday

We haven’t totally abandoned our original mission to cook Friday night’s dinner together but we’ve found it’s much more fun to drink wine over a three hour lunch and order a pizza for dinner.

We had quite a lot to discuss so we called it a planning meeting and set to work.  First, we’ve agreed that no one watches Julie and Julia until we can pick a date for a big screen viewing at Veni’s house.  We shall make bouillabaisse and I get to be Julia with the meat cleaver a la her 1971 The French Chef bouillabaisse episode.
Next we had to re-commit to our surfing/cooking weekend with EVOO Cooking school and women’s surf camp in Cannon Beach.  Some husbands have suggested that we’re too wimpy to willingly submerge ourselves in water so cold but they’re wrong.  Just to prove it, we’ve agreed to celebrate Chinese New Year which coincides with Valentine’s day and a full moon by jumping into Port Madison.  Take THAT ye of little faith.
We set the menu for our next wine society meeting with Eagle Harbor Wine Company.  We refuse to be intimidated by winemaker Hugh Remash who is a sommelier in two countries and his wife a professional chef, both of whom will be joining us on Feb 6th (um, okay we’re a bit intimidated).  Elaine is making beef bourguignon; she speaks fluent French thus I am confident she’ll do us proud. 
Jeff from Harbor Square Wine Shop made a great recommendation when he paired a 2008 Poet’s Leap Riesling (Walla Walla, WA) with spicy butternut squash soup with cilantro.  Veni whipped up a heart of palm salad with hibiscus flowers and balsamic syrup and Hollind wowed us with peppermint bark.

May your New Year be filled with three hour lunches.
Cheers.

Lemon Curd

Tart and refreshing, this lemon curd is the filling for Pasta and Company’s famous lemon tarts but it’s so delicious and easy I use it to fill cakes and scones as well.

Meyer lemons are right now in season.  I’m a huge fan of these sweet lemons and bought a mesh bag of them last week.  We ate them with powdered sugar on French toast (with homemade brioche) and they add extra depth to this lovely curd.  

In the grocery store, you’ll smell them before you see them,their lemon blossom scent is unmistakable.

 

 

I loved the Tom Douglas Cherry Almond Scones so much I made them for E’s class as a morning snack and then came home for English tea Bainbridge Style.  That’s homemade Devonshire cream on top; lemon curd inside.  Absolutely delicious.

Cheers!

  

Lemon Curd

By: Pasta and Company By Request

3 whole eggs

3 egg yolks

¾ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon arrowroot

1 ½ teaspoon lemon zest

4 ounces cream cheese at room temperature

In a food processor bowl equipped with a steel blade, place whole eggs, yolks and lemon juice. Process until eggs are well beaten. Then, with machine running gradually add sugar, arrowroot and lemon zest. When well mixed, add cream cheese a chunk at a time and puree until specks of cream cheese are no longer visible.

Pour lemon mixture into a medium saucepan. Place over medium heat and stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, cook until curd is steaming and coats the spoon, but is still think enough to pour. Remove from heat and stir, curd will thicken as it cools.

Golden Anniversary Cake

My parent’s 50th anniversary celebration: Dad’s favorite German Chocolate cupcakes on the bottom, Mom’s favorite white cake with lemon curd filling on the top and my favorite Devil’s food with white butter cream frosting in the middle.  The cake tower is satin wrapped plywood circles held aloft by candlesticks (glued in place).  The cake flowers were piped then frozen for easy handling then glued in place with frosting.  The cake topper was from my Grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary and my Grandma has passed it on to me…34 years to go.

  

Cheers.