In my Commercial Food Service class, we are evaluated by events. In these events, we draw a dish from a bucket and we have to make it and serve it to 15 people that come to judge our class. Each event is themed, and we are required to decorate and choose how we will serve our "customers". First, was the soup event, and my group (Table 8, clearly the best table) chose French Onion.
French Onion is pretty straight forward. It is mostly made out of what you would think: onions. Here is a basic recipe that can approximate what we did to create our soup:
2.5 lbs thinly sliced onions
1 oz clarified or whole butter
2 fl oz Calvados or sherry
0.5 gal Chicken or White Beef Stock
1 Standard Sachet d'Épices
The first step is to caramelize the onions in the butter over medium-high heat in a large sauce pot. We began "stirring occasionally" as the recipe said, but ended up probably stirring more than that because it takes 25 to 30 minutes to get all the onions where they should be and I'll admit it we were a little bit bored.
French Onion is pretty straight forward. It is mostly made out of what you would think: onions. Here is a basic recipe that can approximate what we did to create our soup:
2.5 lbs thinly sliced onions
1 oz clarified or whole butter
2 fl oz Calvados or sherry
0.5 gal Chicken or White Beef Stock
1 Standard Sachet d'Épices
The first step is to caramelize the onions in the butter over medium-high heat in a large sauce pot. We began "stirring occasionally" as the recipe said, but ended up probably stirring more than that because it takes 25 to 30 minutes to get all the onions where they should be and I'll admit it we were a little bit bored.
There they are. In our pot. Aren't they lovely? You get the gist. And here is a picture of Nick Brady and Ryan Miller holding hands. Or rather, arguing over who's hand gets to be in the picture. So naturally I had to include this picture, since it caused so much controversy. It also shows our lack of following directions and only stirring occasionally:
How nice, I'm going to miss you guys. Anyways, the next step of the recipe is to deglaze the pan with the Calvados/sherry. Deglazing is a method of removing the extra goodness that gets stuck on the pan, in this case the caramelized drippings. You want those included in your soup, so the alcohol will in a sense burn them off and bring them back into the pot so they can be included in the overall flavor.
After deglazing, the stock and sachet are added. The 'Standard Sachet d'Épices' is just a fancy name for bundle of herbs/aromatics, things that add seasoning to your soup. To put one together, you gather the following:
3 to 4 parsley stems
1 sprig of thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tsp cracked peppercorns
1 garlic clove (optional)
We did not use a garlic clove for this recipe. IMPORTANT: Be sure that you then wrap said sachet in cheesecloth or at least tie it all together. Ryan and Nick missed this step and we were fishing peppercorns out of our soup for pretty much forever. In some recipes, for example a basic stock, you don't need to wrap these aromatics because you end up straining the liquid out of all of the items inside the pot before serving or using. This unfortunately, is not the case with French Onion Soup.
Once you add these things, the soup should be simmered until the onions are tender and the soup is properly flavored, about 30 to 35 minutes.
After deglazing, the stock and sachet are added. The 'Standard Sachet d'Épices' is just a fancy name for bundle of herbs/aromatics, things that add seasoning to your soup. To put one together, you gather the following:
3 to 4 parsley stems
1 sprig of thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tsp cracked peppercorns
1 garlic clove (optional)
We did not use a garlic clove for this recipe. IMPORTANT: Be sure that you then wrap said sachet in cheesecloth or at least tie it all together. Ryan and Nick missed this step and we were fishing peppercorns out of our soup for pretty much forever. In some recipes, for example a basic stock, you don't need to wrap these aromatics because you end up straining the liquid out of all of the items inside the pot before serving or using. This unfortunately, is not the case with French Onion Soup.
Once you add these things, the soup should be simmered until the onions are tender and the soup is properly flavored, about 30 to 35 minutes.
After this time, the soup is ready to finish and serve, or can be rapidly cooled and refrigerated for later service. We went with the latter because our day of service (the actual day of the event, not the preparation day) was later in the week. So, we put the pot in ice water to cool and it was then transferred to a container to be refrigerated.
DAY 2: THE EVENT
On the day of the actual event, we were required to come up with a garnish to serve with our soup for the judges. We had 30 minutes to prepare this and get everything ready to serve, including all our decorations for our station. The traditional garnish for French Onion Soup is a slice of baguette covered by a slice of melted gruyere cheese, which covers the top of the soup. I love this garnish, it goes very well with the dish but we wanted to stand out in our presentation and do something a little different. So instead, we sliced the bread into strips and pan-seared them in butter, creating sort of a crispy breadstick:
On the day of the actual event, we were required to come up with a garnish to serve with our soup for the judges. We had 30 minutes to prepare this and get everything ready to serve, including all our decorations for our station. The traditional garnish for French Onion Soup is a slice of baguette covered by a slice of melted gruyere cheese, which covers the top of the soup. I love this garnish, it goes very well with the dish but we wanted to stand out in our presentation and do something a little different. So instead, we sliced the bread into strips and pan-seared them in butter, creating sort of a crispy breadstick:
They were delicious!! And so unique. The final presentation of our soup was a small portion ladled into a ceramic bowl, the gruyere cheese melted over the top of the soup, and the little breadsticks on the side of the bowl.
It was a smash hit! Well, I mean, at least I know I ate all of my bowl. I would definitely do this again. I like the spin on the traditional that makes it something a little bit new. I also liked the crunchy texture of the breadsticks in place of a soggy piece of baguette over the soup. Which, by the way, is also delicious. I definitely enjoy both.