French Onion Soup

Life decided to go by in a flash from July to November. In a matter of months I:

• Partied with 25 of my closest relatives in Beavers Bend National State Park in Oklahoma.
• Contemplated on moving in with a boy for the first time in my life.
• Comforted my best friend in Florida.
• Turned 25.
• Experienced the musical phenomenon Wicked.
• Decided life was moving too fast and took a day off from it.

It was time to take a break, unwind, and let the cooking do the talkin'. Sometimes it's nice to be quiet, pensive, and let my hands do the work -- not my mind. So naturally comfort food was produced and consumed.

French Onion Soup

Nothing says fall quite like French onion soup. It warmed my heart and stilled my mind. Even if it was for a moment.

You'll need....
4 large onions
1 cup white wine (I used Riesling, it's what I had on hand)
4 cups chicken stock
4 cups beef stock
2 cloves minced garlic
worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon thyme
1/2 stick butter
3 tablespoons olive oil
italian blend cheese (any cheese will do: swiss, provolone, gruyere, whatever's your favorite!)
french bread, cut into 1 inch slices

I also used sea salt to season the onions as they cooked. It's about to get smellin' good y'all!

Cut the onion in half and then slice in thin strips. You may start crying and your eyes will burn but it's worth the pain.

Throw the onions into a large pot with 1/2 stick butter and about 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Throw in a generous sprinkle of sea salt and pepper. Heat should be medium high. 

Let the onions sweat in the pot. The goal is to get these cooked down to a nice golden brown so I threw a lid on the pot and stirred every 5 minutes so they cooked evenly.

This is about 10 minutes in. By now your kitchen should smell amazing. Your neighbors might even be knocking on the door asking about the sinly aromas sneaking out of your front door.  

Make sure to scrape off the brown bits at the bottom. Those are the flavor nuggets! I let the onions cook down about 25 minutes until they got to this color. At this point, pour in a generous cup of white wine. I had Riesling on hand so that's what I used. I would recommend using a nice pinot grigio for this soup though. Mmm, nothing like a good pinot and onion combination! 

Turn down the burner to medium heat and add 4 cups of chicken stock.

Add in 4 cups of beef stock. Do you like my fancy new measuring cup? It's silicone and I love it. Oh, the simple kitchen pleasures in life.  

 Press two cloves of garlic and add into the pot.

I added about a tablespoon of thyme. Parsley would also be good in this soup. Or both! Your choice.

Add a few dashes of worcestershire sauce. Your taste buds will thank you later.

 Let the pot come back up to a boil, about 10 minutes. 

The best way to serve up this soup is by topping it with slices of french bread. My sis toasted the slices under the broiler brushed with some garlic butter before we added it to the ramekins.  

Top off with a handful of your favorite cheese. We used an italian blend but any white cheese will do! Put everything under the broiler for about 3 minutes until cheese is melted and browned.

Oh, baby! 

The bread soaks in the soup from the bottom. Let your spoon hit the crunchiness of the bread and the soft onions and melty cheese. Happy fall!

Chinese Pork Dumplings - The Sauce

A Chinese pork dumpling is not complete without a side of savory dipping sauce.

Trust me.

Your life is not complete without it!

Chinese Pork Dumpling Sauce

You will need...
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 tbs. brown sugar
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 tsp. sesame seed oil (you can find this in the Asian section at the grocery store)
1 tbs. chopped green onion
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper

Start with a 1/3 cup of soy sauce and add it to small saucepan. Burner should be on medium-low. 

Add a 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar. The vinegar really makes the sauce!

1/2 cup water to mellow out the flavors.

 Add in one tablespoon of brown sugar for a bit of sweetness. I add in a bit more (one teaspoon extra) according to taste. Taste as you go to see if it needs adjusting or not.

Add in 1-2 cloves minced garlic.

Sesame seed oil has a really strong nutty taste. It's absolutely a must for this sauce! Add one teaspoon. 

Add a handful of chopped green onions. I think I cut up one here but add as much as you like. Can't go wrong with green onions in my book.

Add some heat a.k.a crushed red pepper flakes. Kick it up another notch as our good friend Emeril would say. 

After combining all ingredients, let the sauce come to a boil on medium-high heat. Let it reduce, about 3-4 minutes. Bring the heat back down to low and let it simmer for another 3-4 minutes. Turn off the burner completely and let the sauce cool.

See how it makes the plate? You might even want to drink this stuff.

How saucy of you!

Chinese Pork Dumplings

My ever-growing desire to become a citizen of the world first starts with food. As an American, I find our choices of cuisine nearly endless. Have a taste of Mexico, Italy or Cuba any night of the week. 

I think about how far away the Orient is from my humble flat in the middle of this vast country. How different it must be to live in a country where imperial palaces housed wise emperors and a wall built in the fifth century still stands tall today.

The longevity of Asian countries is a stark contrast against the U.S., a 237-year-old nation.

With my curiosity of these lands, it is no surprise that I've come to love Asian food. And for this - I have to share a favorite near and dear to my heart.

Chinese pork dumplings. 

I first learned how to make these when I was living in Australia. One of my good friends whom I met in the land down under happens to be a native to China. And boy, could she cook! Her specialty were pork wontons (dumplings as we might call them here). I owe a lot of my cooking curiosity to her. Thanks, Betty!


Chinese Pork Dumplings

You will need...
1 lb. ground pork
3 tbs. soy sauce
2 tbs. sesame oil
1/4 cup chopped green onion
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 egg
3 cloves garlic
1 package of wonton wrappers

My grocery store didn't have wonton wrappers (damn) so I went for the egg roll wrappers instead. They're the same thing just built in a bigger size. You'll need to cut them down to bite size as I will demonstrate later.

Dump all the meat into a large bowl. Do not be frightened of ground pork. Although not traditional, it's much like ground beef. Except it oinks instead of moo's.

Mince up about three cloves of garlic.

Chop about three tablespoons of green onions. I am a firm believer in green onions. They just seem to add the right flavor. Amen.

Fresh ginger might look a little scary, but it has big flavor that you won't find in ground ginger from the spice aisle. I have made this recipe several times using ground ginger but this time around it was go big and go Asian. This little piece only cost me 22 cents!

To use: peel off the skin using a paring knife to get to the root.

I'm not fancy. I used a cheese grater for this and it worked perfectly. Ginger is very fragrant, so be prepared. Grate about two teaspoons.

Beat one egg separately.

Toss in the ginger, garlic and green onions.

Add the egg (note, this is not weird slime.. heh). You'll also need to add three tablespoons of soy sauce and two tablespoons of sesame oil. I found the sesame oil in the Asian aisle and it definitely makes this recipe. It gives the dumplings a nutty background.

I mixed everything with my hands, it just seemed like the right thing to do.

Now, we have a dumplin' stuffin' party.

Grab your wonton wrappers. In my case, I had to cut down the egg roll wrappers. Suppose you could make a large dumpling out of this? Hmm... (wheels are spinning)

Cut into quarters.

Place a small spoonful of the filling directly in the middle of the wrapper. You don't want to pile it on or else the wonton won't close.

Wet the edges with water. I take a small dish, fill it with water and use my finger and run it over the edges of each wonton. It helps keep the dumpling from splitting open during the cooking process.

Make a triangle by folding the corners together diagonally.

Press the edges together to create a tight seal with a fork. I press both front and back to make sure they don't open during the cooking time.

Set aside and repeat until all the mixture is used. A pound of pork makes roughly 35 dumplings so grab your sous chef to assist in prep!

Gorgeous little packets ready for boiling!

Use a large, wide-based skillet and fill up with water about half way. Let it come to a rapid boil before adding the dumplings. The larger the skillet, the more dumplings you can cook at a time.

Drop the kids off in the hot tub and let them cook, about 4 minutes. I flip mine about 2 minutes into cook time.

Use tongs to gently grab the dumplings to flip them. Some of them may stick to the bottom of the pan due to the flour on the wrappers. Just try to grab them softly off the bottom without breaking the wrapper.

You'll know when they're cooked through when the wrapper skins start to wrinkle around the meat and the filling starts to look darker in color.

They're ready! Anything bite size is amazing in my book. How can you have just one? You can't.

That's why I chose to have eight instead.

There's nothing wrong with eight. I ate the eight on my plate.

Serve with side of soy sauce or dumpling sauce for dipping. The post about the dumpling sauce is forthcoming. Stay tuned!

Wallis Cheddar Ale Soup

Beer.

Proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

It also goes quite nicely in a big pot of cheese and cream to create the perfect blend of silkiness.

Oh, and it tastes like heaven.

I know most ladies aren't much into the beer variety. But my gals and I aren't most ladies. We do not discriminate against long necks. Or cans for that matter. And what better way to give tribute to the ales, wheats and lagers we know and love by putting it in edible form? This one's for the beer lover in all of us.

Wallis Cheddar Ale Soup

You'll need a few ingredients...
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup carrots, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
- 1 cup flour
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 (12 oz.) beer of choice (for this recipe I used one of my favorites, Newcastle Brown Ale)
- 7 oz. extra sharp cheddar, shredded
- 7 oz. swiss, shredded
- 2 cups half and half
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. dry mustard
- 1/2-1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Gather ye ingredients and place hither on counter. 

You'll need a large pot. Like ol' blue here. 

Have you seen the Ninja? It is amazing. Ninja, you have my free sponsorship right now. This thing will chop just about any darn thing you put in it. This is a huge time saver when chopping the veggies, as I will demonstrate shortly.

Grab the vegetables. I used whole carrots, little nubby snack carrots simply can't compete with these boys. Peel off the outer layer, and get your Ninja on.

Orange glory. I did a really fine chop on all these so that they don't get in the way of our main ingredients. The veggies are more for texture and substance. They are the backbone of this soup but could never take the place of the slightly bitter, slightly sweet Newkie Brown. 

If you're not familiar with the affectionate term Newkie Brown, take a trip to England and please for God's sake (because remember, He gave us beer to make us happy) ask for a Newkie Brown and pray that your English cousins don't catch on to your naivety on such things. 

Your daddy would be so proud. 

Carry on. (My wayward son).

Beer, classic rock. It kinda goes together, doesn't it?

Continue the same way with the celery and onion. If you're doing this manually, I drink for you. Get the pot heated to about medium, add the butter and vegetables and let them soften, about 5 minutes.

It'll begin to mush together. We like mooshy.

Next, gradually add the flour. Sprinkle in a little at a time and stir, stir, stir! You don't want any clumps. My first time making this it was a bit clumpy. The stirring is extremely important so that you thicken the soup throughout.

Whip that spoon! And whip it good.

It'll start to look like you're doing it wrong. But you're not. It's all in the wrist. 

Next grab your beer.

Open it.

Take a sip pull.

Don't forget to be ladylike in the process.

Pinky out.

Theeerrrree you go.

Now take the rest of the brew and gradually stir into the pot until it becomes a porridge consistency.

One thing I forgot to mention.

There was a slight accident on the scene. We had a moment of silence for our bottle of wine that precariously stood atop my fridge and somehow landed in shatters in front of my very own eyes.

Watched the whole thing happen in slow motion. There was nothing I could do but continue to stir the soup. And I thought to myself, there'll be peace when you are done.

After watching your wine tragedy, continue as planned with incorporating the beer and chicken broth.

Add shredded cheddar and swiss until smooth.

Add in half n' half, salt, Worcestershire sauce and dry mustard. NOTE: make sure your dry mustard is clump-free. Clumpy dry mustard results in powder bombs in a spoonful of soup and trust me, powder bombs are not pleasant.

Reduce heat to low and let the soup thicken, about 15 minutes.

The smell and flavor of your beer will really come through in this stage. We meditate.

And then we plate. 

Garnish with extra shredded cheese on top or a few green onions. Nothing says English pub like this cheddar ale soup! Cheers!