Our first blog post ever! The first recipe is a little involved but it is worth the effort.
The first time I attempted this recipe was back in New Jersey about 6 years ago. The smoked onion recipe is one of the first dishes that I cooked on the Big Green Egg and I thought it would be great to incorporate the smoked onions into a French Onion Soup for a different twist.
The original soup came out ok but was a ton of effort so I never tried it again. There are a couple of keys to getting this to come out correctly without a ton of effort.
The first key is to smoke the onions the night before you are going to cook this recipe. If you try to do it the same day, the onions are very difficult to cut right off of the grill. The pictures below show my technique to make the onions pretty easy to cut.
You’ll want to remove the outer layer of onion before you begin cutting the onions. The outer layer will carry the most smoke and can overpower the soup. If you are cooking for somebody that may not love the smokey taste, this can be a little much. There will still be the smoke flavor when removing the outer layer. This is also why you need to prepare for more onions than you typically would for a French Onion Soup.
Although this recipe may seem complex, it is a fairly standard French Onion Soup after the onions are smoked. Of course you will want to use better broths and wine to really step up this recipe.
Another key to this recipe is the toast and cheese. We place the toast on top of the bowls to keep the toast from getting soggy in the soup and then put the cheese on top of the toast. This technique allows you to control how much of the soup you want on your toast. The toast can stay crispy and you can dip it in the soup to savor the broth.
As for the herbs, you can use whatever you think will add complex flavor to the soup. For this particular soup, we used tarragon, thyme, sage, rosemary, basil and a bay leaf.
This dish was perfect for a fall day and came out great. We hope you enjoy it and would love any feedback or suggestions you have for making it better.
Ingredients: (Serves 4)
3 white onions
2 red onions
1 C. pancetta (diced)
2 garlic cloves (finely diced)
2 TBSP jalapenos (chopped= ½jJalapeno)
2TBSP Butter
2 C. beef broth
2 C. chicken broth
1 C. red wine
4 thick slices – gruyere cheese
1 Bay Leaf
Parmesan cheese (fresh- grade yourself on top as condiment)
Bundle Spices w/twine: 2 Sprig/Leaves of each: Basil, Thyme, Tarragon, Rosemary, Sage
French Bread / Hearty Bread – sliced into 1 ½ inch thick pieces
Method:
1. Core onions. Then, use the cored onions to mixture below.
2. Brown pancetta, then add onions from the core, jalapeno, garlic. Stuff prepared mixture into the onions.
3. Smoke stuffed onions for approx. 2 hrs. @ 200 – 250 degrees with sweet wood chips like cherry or.apple
4. Refrigerate smoked onions overnight. Peel off top layer of onion. Dice long-ways. Then caramelize on stovetop. Approx. ½ hour.
5. Add chicken & beef broth, wine, bay leaf, spice sprigs. Bring to boil and let simmer for approx. ½ hour.
6. Discard herbs & bay leaf. Onion broth is ready!
Toast-
1. Line bread on baking sheet. Dust with olive oil. Add Neil’s Baby Back Powder. (or substitute with salt/pepper/grated parmesan)
2. Broil until toasted. Then, remove from heat. Keep aside.
7. To serve you can either use individual oven-proof soup bowls or one large casserole dish.
8. Ladle the soup into the bowls or casserole dish.
9. Cover bowls with toast and layer with shredded or thick sliced gruyere cheese.\
10. Put into the broiler for 10 minutes until the cheese bubbles and is slightly browned.
11. After removing from the broiler, freshly grate Parmesan or Asiago cheese over the bowl and serve.
