Creamy Pasilla Sweet Onion

I found this recipe on the Copykat.com website. This is one of those sites that post recipes of dishes from restaurants across the country.

I had never made this soup until this last weekend. I love French Onion Soup but the recipes I've used have all been very labor intensive and very time consuming. This one is neither. The batch I made this weekend for the family was very good, spicier than I expected but not too spicy. A very good onion soup. Not low calorie by any means due to the cream but very delicious.


Prep time is 15-20 minutes, mostly slicing onions. You can cut this time down if you use a slicing mandolin. We have one I bought several years ago. I rarely use it because I'm scared to death of slicing off a finger tip. But I did use it for this recipe since the onions need to be sliced thinly. Berdie loves the mandolin, I have to leave the room when she uses it, all I see is me rushing her to the hospital with her hand bundled up in a blood soaked kitchen towel and her fingertip in a ziploc bag filled with ice. Full cooking time is 45-60 minutes. This recipe makes about 3 quarts of soup.

INGREDIENTS

2 large yellow onions or 3 medium ones, thinly sliced

1/2 stick of butter
2 teaspoons of minced garlic
1/4 cup of sherry
1/3 cup of flour
1 quart of chicken stock
3 dried pasilla chiles
16 oz heavy cream
8 oz pepper jack cheese, grated
3 green chiles, the canned variety, diced into 3/4 inch pieces
1/2 cup of lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

1. Saute' the onions in the butter until just tender, about 8 minutes. I suggest you slice the onion rings in half so they are easier to eat with a soup spoon.
2. Add the garlic, sherry, and flour
3. Cook about 2 minutes
4. Add chicken stock and pasilla chiles
5. Bring to a boil
6. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes
7. Remove the pasilla chiles and discard
8. Add the cream, cheese and diced green chiles. Spread the cheese evenly over the top of the soup gradually so you don't end up with clumps of cheese
9. Simmer 5 minutes to meld the flavors
10. Add the lemon juice and salt to taste. If you need it a little spicier add either chile powder or white pepper a little bit at a time.

Albondigas!!

My group at work is celebrating Cinco De Mayo on Siete De Mayo this year. With the 5th being on a Sunday and wanting to minimize the impact of the forgetfulness of people over the weekend and have them showing up on Monday forgetting we were celebrating on the 6th we're doing it on the 7th. Whew, that was tough!

There's a salsa contest as part of the celebration and the Pattersons are bringing two entries, one is the red tomatillo based salsa we've been providing to friends the last year and the other is a green tomato based salsa we've made for years. Both recipes are from Berdie's Mom and we love making them.

To accompany the salsa contest I thought it would be good to bring in a Mexican soup and our Albondigas was one I thought of first. Albondigas is a Mexican meatball soup. It's a little more work than many of my soups, mostly because of the making of the meatballs but worth it when you're done. I got this recipe off of allrecipes.com and made some tweaks here and there. I have a pound of sausage instead of a 1/4 pound, that requires some additional portions of eggs, seasonings, and corn meal. Be sure you chop the onion into small pieces otherwise they'll make it tough to make small meatballs. I use our green salsa I mentioned above instead of buying something but Berdie has had me sign a non-disclosure agreement on all salsas so you'll need to procure your own. All I changed in the broth is the addition of lemon juice.

Hope you enjoy.

INGREDIENTS
Meatballs
1 pound of lean ground beef
1 pound of pork sausage
1 onion, finely chopped. Red, yellow, white, doesn't matter
2 beaten eggs
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of fresh chopped basil
1/3 cup of cornmeal

Broth
6 cans of beef broth, 14oz each
8 oz of green salsa
1 onion, chopped
2 cans of peeled and diced tomatoes, 14.5oz each
1/2 teaspoon of dried basil
1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper
1/2 cup of white rice
2 tablespoons of lemon juice

METHOD

1. Combine all of meatball ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly by hand. Squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze until fully blended.
2. Form meatballs to your desired size. Some people like them bite sized such that two can fit on a soupspoon, others like them larger and then chopped them up when eating the soup.
3. Place the meatballs back into the mixing bowl and refrigerate while you make the broth.
4. Combine all of the broth ingredients except the lemon juice and rice in a large soup pot
5. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer leaving uncovered for 20 minutes
6. Add the meatballs one by one and the rice
7. Simmer , covered, very slowly for 60-90 minutes. 60 if meatballs are small, 90 if they are larger.
8. Test a meatball for doneness. If not done leave for another 10 minutes
9. Add the lemon juice and stir completely.
10. Salt and pepper to taste and serve