Friday, June 12, 2009

Onion Soup and Bone Marrow Toast


From "The Whole Beast", page 13


One of the things I have not mentioned about FH is that he can be hilarious. Here's a quote from the footnote on the page this recipe is on:


"Curly Parsley: As the swish, swish, swish of bunches of flat Italian parsley is to be heard in kitchens across the land, it seems time to celebrate the strength and character of the indigenous curly parsley."


Anyway. I am a huge fan of bone marrow, especially the one served at Blue Ribbon in NYC. It is served with an oxtail and onion marmalade and toasted challah bread. Amazing. Especially after a few Martinis, I am not going to lie. So needless to say I was extremely excited about this soup. It is a regular onion soup, up until you have to add a bottle of apple cider (the alcoholic cider, not the cloudy apple juice). I was hesitant at first, because I thought it would just make the whole thing bitter. But as it was cooking the whole kitchen had a wonderful oniony-apple-y aroma. When I tasted it, it was the best onion soup I had ever tasted (it used to be the onion soup at Bouchon, but this one takes the prize for my money).

The recipe recommends to top the marrow with "a healthy topping of parsley, dropped in the dump-truck style (rather than sprinkled)..." And so I did.

The recipe method was spot on to the last detail, except I keep wondering what he means by white bread? This the second recipe that calls for it (the other is the "new season garlic and bread soup" to be posted soon). I wonder if he knows that white bread here in the U.S. is crappy Wonder bread? I think he may mean like a lean dough such as baguette or ciabatta. Unless they happen to have Wonder bread in England which is entirely possible for all I know. But I just can't see it being used as an actual ingredient. So I used a slice of our baguette.

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