Four Onion - Mushroom Soubise

IN A 5 QUART POT:

1 lg. red or Yukon gold potato

½ lg. yellow onion - finely chopped

finely ground red and black pepper

1T black truffle infused EVOO

IN ANOTHER POT:

1T black truffle infused EVOO

8oz. thinly sliced mushrooms

½ lg. yellow onion

1 lg. Vidalia onion

6-8 lg. cloves garlic

3 green onions

1-2t dark, thick balsamic vinegar

4-6c fresh cold water

1-2T Better Than Bouillon - Mushroom

¾c chive-onion sour cream

Finely chop the peeled potato and combine it in a 5 quart pot with the onion and ground peppers in the first group.  Simmer-saute' over low-medium heat until everything's sizzling and there's a little browning on the potato and onion.  Add tiny dribbles of water, as needed, to continue the saute' and keep it from sticking or getting too brown.  When everything's a nice golden color, and the onions are translucent, add just enough water to blend everything well, with an immersion blender.  Pour this into a Pyrex measuring pitcher or a bowl with a spout and set aside.

In the empty pot, combine the EVOO and mushrooms, stirring to wilt and brown them, adding a little of the water as needed.  Reduce the heat and let this simmer to create its own flavorful brown broth.  After 15 minutes, stir in the four types of thinly sliced onions and vinegar.  Add water in small amounts as needed, so as not to let the onions stick.  When everything is beginning to brown, just a tiny bit and soften, pour in the remaining water, soup base and simmer, over low heat 20-30 minutes, or until all the garlic and onions are translucent.

With a wooden spoon, whisk or the immersion blender, incorporate the sour cream into the blended ingredients. Pour this into the big pot, stir to combine. Heat everything until just beginning to steam. Serve topped with fresh grated Parmesan cheese and some crispy croutons.

This would pair very nicely with fresh mixed greens, tossed in an EVOO-Lemon Vinaigrette Dressing. . .Lin

A BIG Allium Adventure!!

I didn't know onions were in the Lily family!  They're also known as alliums!
I've become sort of compulsive with certain cooking and kitchen related things in the past few years.  You know how people collect things. . .well, I have quite the collection of Hall's Superior Kitchenware bowls and covered casserole dishes.  They're useful and so beautiful!  More recently, I've been buying onions, a variety of them, different colors and flavors for different recipes.  I finally decided I need to do something with them since I have so many.  Especially since a couple days ago, a friend and I made tacos for 110 people, and we chopped WAY too many onions. 😜 I split them with another kitchen worker, but we still each had 4c of finely chopped Vidalia onions!!  Oh my!

So today's the day!
I was going to make all these ingredients into a nice pot of soup. Well, problem is, I don't have anyone to share this with right now. I chopped and chopped, then mixed them all together, then realized this is WAY too much onion for a little 3 quart pot of soup! Yup, I was right, it's 12 cups of assorted chopped alliums. Garlic, Purple Shallot, Yellow Onion, Purple Onion, and of course, those Vidalias! 😄

Purple Onion, Vidalias, Shallots, Yellow Onions, Garlic in the center

The greens in the little vase, are mostly for garnish.  Garlic shoots from some cloves I planted, as well as some lovely chives I have in my yard.

I'm using 4 cups of the mixed onions for this recipe, but freezing the remainder in four 2-cup packages for future soups, stews or chili.  

4c mixed, chopped alliums

3-4T butter

2c of filtered, cold water

1t-1T Rosemary Seasoning *

2 sm.-med. new red potatoes

1-2T Chicken Better Than Bouillon

2-4 additional cups of filtered, cold water

½-1c sour cream - optional

'Sweat' the onions and butter over low heat, in a heavy-bottomed, covered pot for about 10 minutes, before adding the next group.  I decided to use a couple scrubbed, finely cubed potatoes to thicken the soup, rather than four, keeping it gluten-free.  Simmer all this together, covered, for another 20 minutes or so, adding more water as needed.

When the potato cubes are soft it's ready to be blended.  An immersion blender is wonderful for this, but you can also use a regular blender.

After blending, check flavors and make any adjustments needed.  Cool for 10 minutes before stirring in the sour cream.  Serve with minced chives, a dab of sour cream and croutons if you want. . .Lin