French Onion with Shiitake Mushroom Soup

So, I mentioned on Facebook the other day that I was in the mood for/was going to make French Onion Soup with the addition of Shiitake Mushrooms.  So, bored on a Sunday morning (yes, I could be working on organizing the basement or going to church), I thought it would be a good time to do so.  And while I was at it, thought I would document it.  And keep track of what I put in it…GASP…a recipe!!!  And PICTURES!!!!

First, we need proper “cooking on a Sunday morning music”.  In the CD player we have on random play Extreme’s “Pornograffitti”, Elton John’s “Elton John”, Guns and Roses’ “Use Your Illusion 2”, Indigenous’ “Live at Pachyderm Studios” and Jennie DeVoe’s “Strange Sunshine”.  Make sure this is all played through 750 watts of Yamaha powered Cerwin Vega H-15 (or the like) to completely annoy your neighbors just like they did to you last Sunday morning with their 7:30 am snowblowing.

Back to the soup.  Here is the ingredient list:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon margarine

3 medium sized yellow onions, thinly sliced and roughly chopped

3 garlic cloves, mashed and minced

8 large dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated in hot water, sliced 1/8” thin*

1 ½  tablespoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon fresh ground pepper

1 ½ teaspoon rubbed sage

½ teaspoon ground cloves

2 large or 4 small bay leaves

Salt to taste

3 pints (48 fluid ounces) roasted vegetable stock#

Over medium heat in a very heavy bottomed pan or pot, add the oil and margarine.  Wait until the margarine browns a bit.  Add the onions and garlic.

This can take awhile, but infrequently stir the onions and garlic until medium golden in color.  Add the mushrooms.  Cook until onions, garlic (if you can even distinguish it at this point) and mushrooms until they are a dark golden brown.  This ensures that the color and flavor of the soup will in part, come from the caramelization and not just from the stock.

Not yet.  We want this:

Add seasonings (yes, we already added the mushrooms, but I didn't feel like taking the time to edit them out with my horrible photo manipulation skills.  I cook, remember?)

and stir for just a moment or two.  Add stock.   

Bring to a boil then to a light simmer.  Let this cook for 30-45 minutes until the liquid barely covers the vegetables. 

 

Play air guitar solo along with Nuno Bennencourt during “Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee”.

Add 2 cups of water and reduce to the aforementioned “barely covers the vegetables”.

OK, the soup is done.   

At this point, adjust the seasonings.  I added a tablespoon of salt at the beginning and think it did an appropriate job.

But now, I’m going to “Uhmerkicanize” it.  Uh, huh…2 ounces of Bourbon Whiskey.  Add it, leave it out, use Applejack, sherry, red or white wine, port, whatever….I’ve seen ‘em all.  But use something decent.  Unkle Bart Bathtub Bourbon doesn't cut it but using Eagle Rare 17 Year Old is overkill.  Buffalo Trace does well.

Pull out the bay leaves.  Nobody wants to choke on them.

At this point, the soup is vegan.  Ain’t that nice.  It was actually the driving force behind the recipe and creation of the soup.  Geez, now you’ll have to eat vegan food.  In my best Fran Drescher “Oh, ain’t that hoooorrrrribblllllle”.

There are now many options.  You can use toasted bread rounds, croutons (easiest to eat), bagel chips or an array of bread products.  And for the cheese, I like a blend of finely shredded Emmentaler Swiss and good Provolone to provide a good balance of tangy and gooey.  Heat the soup to boiling.  Place the bread in individual bowls, ladle the soup over it and then top it all with the cheese.  At this point, hopefully the soup is hot enough to melt the cheese.  Or you can pop them in the oven.  Or you can take a blow torch to it (to which you must make Beavis and Butthead voices of “FIRE! FIRE!”).  If you really want to get all fancy pants and impressive you could go the route of Paul Bocuse’s famous Truffle Soup V.G.E. where the top of the soup cup is topped and sealed with buttered and egg washed puff pastry and baked until a dome of glistening crust appears (notice the cup…it is labeled especially for the soup.  I guess you could take a magic marker to your grandmother's antique Noritake china....)

Me, no cheese or bread. 

You should get about 6 8 ounce servings out of this.

*  I usually have dried shiitakes around and you can use fresh ones if you want.  I poured about 1 ½  cups of boiling water over them and let them sit partially covered overnight.  The next day, I squeeze all of the liquid out of them into the bowl in which they were soaking.  I use that soaking liquid as part of the stock….speaking of which…

#  “How much roasted vegetable stock is there on the planet?”.  Well, I make mine.  I save all the veggie scraps and freeze them.  Brown them up with a little oil in a pot, barely cover with water, add some bay, thyme, pepper and garlic and let it simmer very lightly for two hours refreshing with just enough water to barely cover.  Strain, cool, reserve in the ‘fridge.  If you don’t have veggie stock, you can use chicken or beef, but make sure it isn’t that GAWDAWFUL overly salted fakey flavored crap or it will drown out the flavor of the onions.

So there you have it.  Don't expect this to be a regular column.