French Onion Soup Dumplings Food

FRENCH ONION SOUP DUMPLINGS (THE SOUP IS IN THE DUMPLING!)

Steps:

• 1. Make the Soup: Melt the butter over low heat. Add the onions and shallots and cook, stirring frequently, until they are a deep caramel color, 25 to 30 minutes. Raise the heat to medium, add the wine and cook until it has completely evaporated, 5 to 9 minutes. Add the beef and chicken broths and cook until the liquid is reduced by about half, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the thyme and vinegar, season with salt and pepper, and cook 1 minute more. Remove from heat and let cool. Line a loaf pan with parchment or foil and pour soup into pan. Freeze until solid, at least 4 hours but preferably over night. NOTE:You can use your own left over soup for this step.
• 2. Make the Croutons: Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, toss the bread with olive oil,garlic,thyme,1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper. Spread croutons on a baking sheet and bake, stirring occasionaly, until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Let cool and then skewer 30 of the best looking croutons with toothpicks (save the rest for another use)
• 3. Make the dumplings: Unmold the soup mixture from the pan. Using a large knife, cut the frozen soup lengthwise into 4 long strips, then cut each strip crosswise into 10 even pieces. (40 all together each about 3/4 inch square) Put one square in the center of a won ton wrapper. Brush edges with egg and wrap being careful to make sure it is covered and sealed completely. Take a second wrapper and repeat by covering the first wrapper. Make a good tight seal. Repeat this step for the rest of the wrappers. Put dumplings on a baking sheet and freeze until ready to fry.
• 4. Take frozen dumplings out of freezer when ready to cook. Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat. It should be about 365 degrees for proper frying. You can test it by adding a small drop of water to the pan and when the water starts to "sing and dance" your oil is hot enough. Deep fry the dumplings a few at a time, making sure you dont over crowd them in the pan. Drain on paper toweling.
• 5. Put fried dumplings on an over proof platter or dish. Cover with shredded cheese ( I found that Havarti melts beautiful) Put under broiler (toaster oven is fine) until cheese melts. Place the skewered crouton in the top of each dumpling.
• 6. Serve and watch everyone as they are amazed and ask how you got soup into the dumpling! Tell them it is top secret, and enjoy! :)
• 7. NOTES: The next time I make these, I will use my favorite French Onion Soup recipe. You always seem to have some left over that is more onion and less broth. Perfect for this recipe and would save time. Because these are frozen, you can make a bunch up and have them ready whenever you like. I pictured these with melted Mozzarella cheese. I made more and used Havarti cheese and that melted to perfection. Swiss would also work. The recipe originally calls for Gruyere cheese, but @ $22.00 a pound, I found an alternative! These are not as labor intensive as them seem. Take it in steps and you will have an impressive Horderve on hand for the making!

FRENCH ONION SOUP DUMPLINGS

Steps:

• Heat the butter and oil in a sauté pan on medium-low heat. Add the onions, sugar, salt, and pepper, and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. You may have to turn your heat down to low if you find them caramelizing too quickly. You want them very soft, but not burnt. You can also use the Alton Brown method: put them in an electric skillet set to 300°F, cover and leave undisturbed for 10 minutes, then start stirring every few minutes.
• After 30 minutes, add the cognac. Do not pour the cognac directly into the pan from the bottle if there is a live flame; the flame could travel up the pour-stream and into the bottle, causing it to explode. Measure the cognac in a liquid measuring cup, then move the pan off the heat, pour in the cognac, and return the pan to the stove. Let the cognac reduce for 1 minute. Add the wine, beef stock, bay leaf and thyme. Season again with salt and pepper. Simmer on low for another 30 minutes.
• Set the onions into a strainer over a bowl to cool to room temperature. Reserve both the onions, and the broth that drains from them.
• Preheat the broiler. Spray two individual gratin dishes with non-stick spray, and stand them on a foil-lined baking sheet (to make for easy clean-up).
• Take a wonton wrapper in one hand. Dip a finger or small brush in the reserved broth and moisten the entire surface of one side of the wrapper. Place 1 tsp of the onions in the center of the wrapper. Bring all four corners together, pinching and twisting to form a small pouch (called a beggar's purse). Place dumpling, seam side down, into gratin dish. Continue until both dishes are full.
• Top each dish with half the Gruyère and half the Parmesan. Dot each dish with 1 tbsp of butter. Pop the dishes under the broiler until the cheese is melted, bubbly and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Poke a toothpick into each dumpling and garnish with chives or thyme sprigs.

FRENCH ONION SOUP DUMPLINGS RECIPE - (5/5)

Steps:

• Soup: 1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray inside of heavy-bottomed large (at least 7-quart) Dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray. Place butter and olive oil in pot and add sliced onions (slice in half moons) and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, 1 hour (onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove pot from oven and stir onions, scraping bottom and sides of pot. Return pot to oven with lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until onions are very soft and golden brown, another 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour. 2. Remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat on stove. Cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until liquid evaporates and onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing heat to medium if onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until pot bottom is coated with dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.) Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing 2 or 3 more times, until onions are very dark brown. Stir in sherry and deglaze, stirring frequently, until sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes. 3. Stir in broths, 2 cups water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper, and let cool/rest. Pour soup mixture into pan/container that will make it easy for frozen slicing the next day. Line container with parchment paper to help frozen product remove easily. Freeze until solid, at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight. If your stock does not get solid, add gelatin, and follow the instructions like you were making jello. Remove soup from the pan/container, cut the soup into cubes, each about 3/4 to 1 square inch. Beat an egg, then rub the edge of the wonton wrappers with the beaten egg, which will allow the dumpling to adhere and keep its shape. You can also do this with any broth you may have reserved. Fill the center of the wonton wrappers with a square piece, allowing you to get the most possible broth in the wrappers/dumplings. Fold one corner up to meet the opposite corner, and press the sides of the triangle together. Take the other two sides, and bring them up to the central point, and twist, forming a little beggar's purse/dumpling. Squeeze out all possible air. Steam the dumplings immediately on the stove by taking a large boiling pan and filling it with water to just below the height of your cookie cutters. Place a cookie cutter on the surface, followed by a pie tin, sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, along with with numerous slits in it to allow the steam to flow upward. Place subsequent cookie cutters inside pie tins, and stack to the top. You should be able to stack 3 tins high, with about 6 dumplings per tin. Cover and steam for 15 minutes. Remove and place each dumpling in one of the depressions of an escargot dish, and sprinkle the top with a healthy layer of gruyere cheese. Pad the cheese with melted butter. Place the dish under the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese is melted & bubbly around the edges, about 3-5 minutes. Remove dumplings from broiler, skewer one crouton on each toothpick & then skewer each dumpling with a toothpick as prepared. Garnish with chopped chives & thyme. Let cool for a minute or two tops, as both the cheese and broth will be quite hot. Serve and enjoy.