this past week many eyes have been on the ever given’s halt in the suez canal, as well as the internet’s ever-vicious meme wit. in the wise words of a personal icon, lenny bruce - “all my humor is based on destruction and despair. if the whole world were tranquil, without disease and violence, i’d be standing in the breadline right in back of j. edgar hoover.” and i personally think that lenny bruce would have loved to live during the era of the internet. he may have even been a “troll.”
would this have been front page news if our amazon deliveries were suddenly pushed back two weeks? the devastation of the ever-given’s halt reveals unto itself how important globalization is as a part of our millions of global cultures (and the global economy, but we’re not here to talk about that). what would the world look like if our cultural importing and exporting moved at a snail's pace? would our world be different if you couldn’t buy matcha kit-kats in soho? or a can or corn-syrup laden coca-cola out in the fishing towns along the southern cape of south africa? or find louis vuitton knockoffs in hong kong? perhaps i am over-dramatizing a very isolated incident, but millions of dollars was lost between the actions to dislodge the ship, the damage to the ship itself, and the amount of ships that were unable to pace through because of the delay. money talks, and this incident speaks volumes to the demand and intrinsic power of globalization of goods.
how lucky do i feel to be making a french soup in new york city? very lucky, to be able to take advantage of centuries of work (the ottomans began construction on the suez canal) without being able to walk down the street and buy any french cookbook (but let’s be honest, it’s always going to be julia childs), how would i be able to treat myself and my friends to a delicious bowl of french onion soup. enjoy this recipe, the years of cultural exportation that allowed you to enjoy it, and plunge through the murky liquid whilst wondering what the suez canal carries as well.
french onion soup
serves 1
ingredients:
½ sweet yellow onion (about ½-¾ lbweight)
27 g/ 2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 g/ ½ tsp sherry vinegar
30 g/ 2tbsp cup dry white wine (i suggest always having on hand a bottle of affordable white wine that can live in the fridge with the purpose of being cooked with)
75g/ ⅓ cup beef stock (store bought or homemade - the homemade stock follows the exact same recipe in last week’s post for chicken soup except the chicken bones are replaced by an equal weight of beef marrow bones, and the 1 boneless skinless chicken breast used for clarification will be substituted with a 1/4lb beef medallion of any lean, cheap cut)
⅔ - 1 cup water
1 ½ tsp diamond crystal kosher salt
1-2 slices of sourdough bread (my absolute favorite is the sourdough batard from shewolf bakery in my neighborhood of greenpoint, brooklyn) or 4-5 slices of french baguette
38g/ ⅔ cups grated gruyere
recipe:
cut off the bulb end of the onion, and resting on that new edge, halve through the root. pull off the paper and chop each in ½” strands. in a heavy bottomed pot, melt the butter until lightly foamy. add the onions and black pepper, and slowly caramelize over medium-low heat for about 15-20 minutes, until thoroughly caramelized and sweet in aroma, stirring frequently (if the outside of the onions are browning before the centers can cook down, reduce heat). deglaze the pot with the sherry vinegar and white wine, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to incorporate all of those browned bits into the liquid. once the liquid has died down and the bottom of the pot has nothing stuck to it anymore, add the beef stock, water, and salt. let everything incorporate and allow the entire liquid to come to a boil to burn off some of the alcohol. taste for more salt, or more water to dilute.
while the soup is heating up, cut up the sourdough into small 1” by 1” squares. grate the gruyere and set aside. make sure your oven rack is at the highest notch, and turn on the broiler in the oven. once the soup is hot, ladle into the oven-safe bowl for serving (a traditional ceramic bowl can be used here, but all that matters is that it is oven-safe. this is for individual servings, so if you are scaling up the recipe portion into as many bowls as people eating). scatter the breadcrumbs on top of the soup, then the cheese on top of that, before quickly transferring to the oven. keep under the broiler for about XXX minutes, or until cheese is bubbling and melty. remove from oven and serve hot.
pierce through the cheesy boat and explore the peppery, oniony, soupy detritus below.
original recipe, original photographs. all rights reserved by author.
a downloadable pdf copy of the recipe can be found here.
Looks delicious! Excellent observations of the world today.
Navigating the world in a boat of cheese. That's me!