Blue Cheese Burgers with Red Onion Jam

Bobby Flay knows how to grill. We used his recipe for blue cheese burgers and red onion last weekend and served them with the roasted fingerling potato salad with watercress and horseradish dressing. I did my burgers with blue cheese, Jason and Nancy opted for provolone. Either way, with the red onion jam, dinner was delicious! We'll be enjoying these throughout the summer, and tonight!

BURGERS

1 lb grass fed ground beef
Worcestershire sauce
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Salt
Pepper
Arugula or watercress
Blue cheese or provolone

- Mix the seasonings into the beef. Form into 3 patties, and make an indent with your thumb on the top of the patty. Grill to your desired level of doneness, just before done, add cheese to the top and cover the grill to melt. And don't forget to toast your buns!

- Serve the burgers topped with dijon mustard, red onion jam and arugula or watercress if you'd like

RED ONION JAM

1 medium red onion
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup red wine
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 Tbsp honey
1 tsp thyme
salt and pepper

- Halve the onion and slice thinly

- Heat the oil in a sauce pan and saute the onion, with some salt and pepper, until nice and soft

- Add the wine, vinegar, honey and thyme and cook until the liquid is absorbed.

- Set aside and season to taste with salt and pepper

FRENCH ONION SOUP

It spontaneously turned into Bistro Night at our house yesterday evening.  Braised chicken with carrots, onions and fennel and roasted fingerling potatoes served as the main course with a Pinot Gris.  The starter was my first attempt at homemade french onion soup.  I love french onion soup and am frankly surprised I have never tried it before.  The results were very good.  In retrospect there were a few changes I would have made and I have included them here.  One thing to bear in mind is that this recipe does take about an hour and a half to prepare.  My onions weren't browning and I just had to let them go for over an hour.

FRENCH ONION SOUP

4 Tbsp butter
6-7 (a bit over 2 lbs) sweet vidalia onions, sliced thinly into half moons
Fresh thyme
1/4 cup sherry
2 cups chicken stock
4 cups beef broth
salt and pepper
french baguette, cut into thick slices on the diagonal
grated gruyere cheese

--In a dutch over, or other heavy pan, melt the butter over medium heat

--Lower the heat to med-low and add the onions, the leaves of 1-2 sprigs fresh thyme and salt.
--Cook the onions until they start to brown.  This took me literally over an hour.  Be patient. 

--Once they have started to brown, add the sherry and cook until the sherry has evaporated

--Add the chicken stock and beef broth and simmer for about 30 minutes.  Continue tasting and adjusting with salt and pepper as necessary

--Turn on the broiler and place 1 baguette slice per soup bowl on a baking sheet

--Broil the bread for croutons about one minute

--Ladle the soup into over-safe bowls.  Place the baguette, toasted side down in the soup.  Top with the grated gruyere and place under the broiler for just under two minutes

Onion and White Bean Soup

I took my inspiration for this recipe from Fabio Viviani's Sweet Onion and Mixed Legume Soup recipe.  Fabio was one of my favorite contestants ever to be on Top Chef and to top off all of his successes, according to his Food Network bio he is also William Shatner's private chef???

This winter I keep finding myself with excess bags of onions and so this soup was born.  I made it tonight and have tasted it but, as with most of my soups, I really prefer to make it in the evening and not eat it until the next day.  The soup ended up being quite sweet which I cut with worcesteshire and hot sauce. 

Maybe with my next spare bag of onions I'll finally try to make a true french onion soup!

ONION AND WHITE BEAN SOUP

1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large carrot diced
3-4 stalks celery diced
2 cloves of garlic sliced
2lbs onions sliced
1 cup dried white beans soaked overnight, rinsed and simmered the next day until tender (or about a can and a half of cannellini)
6 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper
worcesteshire sauce
hot sauce

Heat the oil in a stock pot.  Add the carrots, celery and garlic and sautee for about 6 minutes with a healthy dose of salt and pepper. 

Add the onions and 1 cup of the stock.  Simmer until all of the liquid is absorbed and the onions are almost stringy, about an hour. 

Add the rest of the stock and the white beans and continue to simmer. 

Add salt and pepper to taste.  At this point the soup should be pretty sweet.  Add some worcesteshire and hot sauce in small doses, continuing to taste.

Remove from the heat and blend with an immersion blender (or the boat motor as my husband calls it!).

Onion Chutney

I have been eyeing this recipe for onion chutney that I found on Closet Cooking.  Yesterday I had a bag of onions and was going to our friends K & A's house for dinner so I decided to try it out!

It was a success!  We bought some cow's milk cheese and just scooped the chutney over cheese on a cracker.  The cheese we bought was disappointingly boring but the chutney livened it up.  I've never made a chutney before and am still not 100% sure what actually makes a chutney.  My husband thinks it is the combo of sweet and spicy.  Any opinions?  Either way this dish is destined to become a new go-to for book clubs and parties. 

ONION CHUTNEY

6 cups onions sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp mustard seeds
4 dried chilis crushed (I just crushed them by hand)
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

Heat the oil in a pan. 

Add the cumin mustard seeds and chilis and heat until they start to sputter (you will hear it!)

Add the onions and sautee until they turn golden brown.  I cooked them for quite awhile on about medium heat, probably about 30 minutes.

Add the chili powder, salt, sugar and lemon juice and cook until all the sugar dissolves and everything has blended together.

Store in a jar.

You can try my recipe for baked camembert and onion chutney