French Potato Soup... or, Onions Are Icky
So as a way of procrastinating on the last 10k of my NaNoWriMo novel, I've been playing Cafe World on Facebook kind of a lot today. One of the things I made in my little pretend restaurant was French Onion Soup, and that little pixelated bowl of melted cheese looked sooooooo good. I wanted to make my own, except I hate onions. I googled for a bit to see if there was a non-oniony variation, thinking that surely someone had been in a similar predicament before and maybe used potatoes or something. Alas, either my google-fu failed me, or no one else was quite as much of a dork as I am.
So I made up my own recipe. I googled for some French Onion Soup recipes, and modified the heck out of 'em based on 1) not using onions, and 2) what I had in my fridge and pantry. It turned out pretty tasty for a seat-of-the-pants experiment!
French Potato Soup, aka Onions Are Icky Soup
2 medium-sized red potatoes, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 tbl butter (I think? It was what was left of the stick...)
4 C chicken broth
4 C beef broth (both broths made of bullion cubes I found in my pantry)
2-3 tbl red wine vinegar (it's what I had, okay?)
A splash or two of Worcestershire sauce for luck (Look, I spelled it right on the first try!)
3 "wheat dollar rolls" (left over from the office Thanksgiving potluck last week)
2 slices Provolone (left over from trying this)
handful Monterrey Jack cheese (left over from making this for Thanksgiving)
Melt the butter in a dutch over/soup pot thing. I have this thing that a coworker gave me a few years ago. Once the butter melts, add the potatoes and garlic. Stir it all up so everything is coated in delicious butter, and the put the lid on and turn the heat up to medium-high.
While that's going to town, get out a saucepan and fill it with 8 cups of water, praying that you remember to keep an eye on it to keep it from boiling over, because it looks like it only holds 9 cups of water. Put it on high heat, and then add 4 cubes each of chicken and beef bullion. Poke at them with a spoon after a few minutes, to help encourage them to dissolve.
Lift the lid on the pot with the potatoes, and stir them around a bit. You should be getting some burnt-looking bits on the bottom, but don't panic, it's all good.
Slice the rolls into about 4 slices each, and lay them on a baking sheet. If you have butter, butter them up generously. If you realize at this point that you used the last of your butter in the potatoes, grab your can of cooking spray and spray 'em down on both sides. Pop them in a 375 degree oven for a while, to get 'em started toasting.
Poke at the bullion cubes some more, and make sure it's all good and dissolved. turn down the heat if it's close to boiling, so you don't end up with a huge mess on your stove.
By this point, the potatoes should be pretty much falling apart in the pot. Take off the lid and stir them around to make sure they are thoroughly cooked and falling apart. Then pour in the red wine vinegar and deglaze the pot. All the burnt-looking stuff should come off the bottom of the pan easily. Once it's all deglazed, pour in the broth and stir it all together. Add your splash of Worcestershire sauce for luck.
Get the "croutons" from the oven. Tear the provolone slices into small bits and put them on the slices of roll, then put them all back in the oven to melt the cheese. Sigh wistfully and make a wish for Santa to bring ramekins or oven-save bowls for Christmas.
Get one of your plastic, non-oven-safe bowl from the cabinet and put a small handful of monterrey jack cheese in the bottom, then wait hungrily. Once the cheese on the croutons in the oven is all good and bubbly, pull the baking sheet out of the oven. Ladle some soup into the bowl with the cheese, top with croutons, and start eating. Rejoice, and silently make fun of everyone who thinks French Onion Soup has to have onions in it.
THINGS I LOVED:
- I really liked the way the potatoes were fall-apart done.
- I liked the way the flavors worked together. I think the splash of Worcestershire was genius, especially since potatoes (unlike onions) don't really have a lot of flavor on their own.
- I liked the little rolls! There were more "heel" pieces, and those stood up really well in the soup. I liked the heel bits more than I liked the middle bits, which got way soggy. Of course, this is probably because I got impatient when they were in the oven, but shh.
- Man, this was good.
WAYS THIS COULD BE BETTER:
- I really would love to make this the "proper" way, in a ramekin or bowl that goes into the broiler to melt the cheese! Then the cheese in the bowl wouldn't be needed at all, which would be an improvement.
- I also want to use Gruyere next time, because I bet it's more suited to the brothy soup.
- More garlic!
- One more potato!
- I think I'd like to try it with lower-sodium broth, too.
- I'd like to try using wine to deglaze the pan, but only if I can find a small bottle or something. I don't drink, and I wouldn't want to waste the rest of the bottle.
So I made up my own recipe. I googled for some French Onion Soup recipes, and modified the heck out of 'em based on 1) not using onions, and 2) what I had in my fridge and pantry. It turned out pretty tasty for a seat-of-the-pants experiment!
French Potato Soup, aka Onions Are Icky Soup
2 medium-sized red potatoes, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 tbl butter (I think? It was what was left of the stick...)
4 C chicken broth
4 C beef broth (both broths made of bullion cubes I found in my pantry)
2-3 tbl red wine vinegar (it's what I had, okay?)
A splash or two of Worcestershire sauce for luck (Look, I spelled it right on the first try!)
3 "wheat dollar rolls" (left over from the office Thanksgiving potluck last week)
2 slices Provolone (left over from trying this)
handful Monterrey Jack cheese (left over from making this for Thanksgiving)
Melt the butter in a dutch over/soup pot thing. I have this thing that a coworker gave me a few years ago. Once the butter melts, add the potatoes and garlic. Stir it all up so everything is coated in delicious butter, and the put the lid on and turn the heat up to medium-high.
While that's going to town, get out a saucepan and fill it with 8 cups of water, praying that you remember to keep an eye on it to keep it from boiling over, because it looks like it only holds 9 cups of water. Put it on high heat, and then add 4 cubes each of chicken and beef bullion. Poke at them with a spoon after a few minutes, to help encourage them to dissolve.
Lift the lid on the pot with the potatoes, and stir them around a bit. You should be getting some burnt-looking bits on the bottom, but don't panic, it's all good.
Slice the rolls into about 4 slices each, and lay them on a baking sheet. If you have butter, butter them up generously. If you realize at this point that you used the last of your butter in the potatoes, grab your can of cooking spray and spray 'em down on both sides. Pop them in a 375 degree oven for a while, to get 'em started toasting.
Poke at the bullion cubes some more, and make sure it's all good and dissolved. turn down the heat if it's close to boiling, so you don't end up with a huge mess on your stove.
By this point, the potatoes should be pretty much falling apart in the pot. Take off the lid and stir them around to make sure they are thoroughly cooked and falling apart. Then pour in the red wine vinegar and deglaze the pot. All the burnt-looking stuff should come off the bottom of the pan easily. Once it's all deglazed, pour in the broth and stir it all together. Add your splash of Worcestershire sauce for luck.
Get the "croutons" from the oven. Tear the provolone slices into small bits and put them on the slices of roll, then put them all back in the oven to melt the cheese. Sigh wistfully and make a wish for Santa to bring ramekins or oven-save bowls for Christmas.
Get one of your plastic, non-oven-safe bowl from the cabinet and put a small handful of monterrey jack cheese in the bottom, then wait hungrily. Once the cheese on the croutons in the oven is all good and bubbly, pull the baking sheet out of the oven. Ladle some soup into the bowl with the cheese, top with croutons, and start eating. Rejoice, and silently make fun of everyone who thinks French Onion Soup has to have onions in it.
THINGS I LOVED:
- I really liked the way the potatoes were fall-apart done.
- I liked the way the flavors worked together. I think the splash of Worcestershire was genius, especially since potatoes (unlike onions) don't really have a lot of flavor on their own.
- I liked the little rolls! There were more "heel" pieces, and those stood up really well in the soup. I liked the heel bits more than I liked the middle bits, which got way soggy. Of course, this is probably because I got impatient when they were in the oven, but shh.
- Man, this was good.
WAYS THIS COULD BE BETTER:
- I really would love to make this the "proper" way, in a ramekin or bowl that goes into the broiler to melt the cheese! Then the cheese in the bowl wouldn't be needed at all, which would be an improvement.
- I also want to use Gruyere next time, because I bet it's more suited to the brothy soup.
- More garlic!
- One more potato!
- I think I'd like to try it with lower-sodium broth, too.
- I'd like to try using wine to deglaze the pan, but only if I can find a small bottle or something. I don't drink, and I wouldn't want to waste the rest of the bottle.