French Onion soup experiment number 1
Put the bones from Christmas dinner’s Prime Rib Roast in the slow cooker with some water, bay leaves, dried tarragon and let it simmer about 5 hours on low and then brought it up to high for about 3 hours.
Let the broth cool a little and then dropped ice cubes into the broth – the fat clings to the ice cubes so it is easier to remove. Took out the bones and shredded the bits of meat then put the broth on to simmer in a pot with the addition of garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce, freshly ground black pepper and Merlot. As the broth continued to simmer, sliced up and caramelized four large sweet onions.. this took about 40 minutes – you don’t want to rush this process because the onions should be golden brown, not burned.
Added the onions to the simmered broth
Took two-day old French bread, lightly buttered and covered in slices of Gruyere – toasted & melted under the broiler. Wanted “hard” bread so that it would just disintegrate in the soup. Served up three bowls of soup (so four onions & broth, etc. made three good dinner-sized servings). We didn’t have bowls that could go under the broiler so we laid the toasted bread on top of the soup. For a first time, it turned out ok. I would like to have a stronger broth next time so I am going to do some research on what bones to use, etc. I will report back!