Dinner Party: French Onion Soup and Steak Au Poivre

A few years ago, I hosted a series of dinner parties. It gave me an opportunity to learn a few recipes and try a few different meals, as well as an excuse to spend time with friends and a chance to introduce a few of my friends to each other. I decided to try hosting a few more, and contacted several friends to see who might be interested in joining me for a fancy dinner. Since then, I've hosted  four parties, and have a few parties scheduled for the coming weeks, too. It's been a fun experiment, and I hope that I'll be able to keep at least some of the recipes in my repertoire.

For the first dinner party, on August 17, I invited Aurora, Ken, and Donna to sample some French-style cuisine.

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Onion Soup with Loads of Thyme and Giant Gruyère Crostini

Ingredients:

• 1 pound yellow onions, halved and thinly cut lengthwise
• 3 to 5 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• Fresh cracked pepper
• 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 2 cups beef stock
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2-inch-thick slice of ciabatta bread cut in half
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups grated Swiss Gruyère cheese

Instructions:

In a heavy 5-quart pot melt the butter over low heat. Add the onions, thyme, bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste and cook until the onions are deep amber and exceedingly soft, stirring occasionally, 25 to 30 minutes. Add the flour and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, then add the wine, increase the heat, and let the wine bubble away for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the beef stock and water, and let the soup simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, allowing the flavors to meld together. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat the oven to broil. Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven.

Place the ciabatta on the middle rack of the oven and toast until crispy, about 2 to 3 minutes per side.

Remove the bay leaf and thyme sprigs from the soup and discard. Pour the soup into two ovenproof bowls, float the toasted ciabatta on top, and cover it with a thick layer of the Gruyère. Put the soup bowls under the broiler on the middle rack and cook 3 to 5 minutes, or until the cheese is fully melted and golden.

Notes:

This recipe is intended to serve two, so I doubled the ingredients in the recipe for this dinner party.

As a general note, I've found it very useful to measure and chop the vegetables, and shred the cheese, the night (or morning) before the party. It streamlines the cooking process, minimizes the number of tasks you might need to perform at the last minute, and reduces the number of headaches.

This was my first time using the broiler, so that was a little bit intimidating.

I didn't know how much cheese I needed to purchase in order to get 1 1/2 cups of grated cheese, and bought 2-3 times as much as I actually needed. For the record, 1/4 pounds of cheese is the equivalent of 1 cup of grated cheese.

I liked how the soup tasted, and, even though I'm not generally a "soup" person, I'd be up for trying this recipe again.

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Steak Au Poivre

Ingredients:

• 4 steaks, 1/2 pound (220 g.) each, from the fillet, rump,or sirloin, and without any kind of fatty wrapping
• Crushed pepper—black, gray, or green
• Salt
• 2 tablespoons neutral oil
• 4 tablespoons (60 g.) cold butter
• 1/2 cup (10 cl.) dry white wine
• 1/2 cup (10 cl.) brown veal stock (or from a bouillon cube)
• 1 tablespoon crème fraîche (optional)
• 1 tablespoon mustard (optional)

Instructions:
Remove the steaks from the refrigerator 20 minutes in advance. Prepare a cooling rack (or small overturned plate - over a large plate).

Cover the steaks on both sides with crushed pepper. Pat it on firmly so that it sticks into the flesh. Salt the steaks on both sides. (Be sure to pepper and then salt, or the pepper will not stick to the steaks.)

Heat the oil in a sauté pan over high heat. Add 1 teaspoon butter. Rotate the pan as the butter melts, and when it begins to foam, lower the heat to medium. Lay the steaks in the pan and cook for 4 minutes, rotating them in the pan and spooning the cooking juices over them. Flip them with tongs or a spatula and cook 4 minutes on the other side, rotating and basting as before. Stand the steaks on their sides, using tongs to help, and cook them 2 minutes on their edges. Remove the steaks to the cooling rack and tent them loosely with aluminum foil.

Put a serving dish and a sauceboat to warm in the oven, turned to 150°F/80°C.
Pour the wine into the sauté pan and bring to a boil, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spatula until the wine is syrupy.

Dice the rest of the butter, which should be well chilled. Add the veal stock to the pan and boil for 2 minutes. If you are using the crème fraîche, stir it in. Then stir in the diced butter bit by bit. Put this sauce through a fine strainer into the warmed sauceboat. If you are using the mustard, stir it in now. Taste for salt and pepper.

Put the steaks on the warmed serving platter, coat them with sauce, and serve the rest of the sauce on the side.

Notes:

I did not see any veal stock at the supermarket, so I ended up using beef stock instead. I did use crème fraîche, but decided not to use mustard.

I found the recipe to be relatively simple. The steaks I purchased weren't uniform in size, and that's something I would be more careful about if I tried this recipe in the future, but it worked out in the end.

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Rum Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup dark rum
• Equipment: an ice cream maker

Instructions:
Bring cream, milk, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and nutmeg to a simmer in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring.

Meanwhile, whisk together eggs, remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a large bowl. Add cream mixture in a slow stream, whisking. Return to saucepan and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until mixture coats back of spoon and registers 175°F on an instant-read thermometer (do not boil).

Immediately strain custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl. Stir in rum and chill custard at least 6 hours.

Freeze in ice cream maker, then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, about 2 hours.

Notes:
I should have known better, but this ice cream ended up tasting boozier than I expected. I have gotten fairly comfortable making ice cream with my ice cream maker (and might dedicate a blog post to that in the future), so, once I know the ingredients and proportions for a particular type of ice cream, I generally don't need to look at the recipe too carefully. I was unsure about how the grated nutmeg would turn out, and even bought a container of nutmeg in case I didn't end up with enough freshly grated nutmeg, but it really added a nice touch.