Soup Sunday - Onion & Barley Soup with Swiss Cheese Flans
I think I should change the title of my blog to Soup Sunday! Things have been so busy during the week and I have been traveling a lot, so Sunday has really been my only day to cook.
Today's soup is Onion & Barley Soup with Jarlsberg Flans. The original recipe can be found here (Epicurious.com). I cut the recipe in half and used Jarlsberg Swiss; I think Gruyere would also work well.
My recipe, including the amounts I used, is noted below.
Ingredients
Today's soup is Onion & Barley Soup with Jarlsberg Flans. The original recipe can be found here (Epicurious.com). I cut the recipe in half and used Jarlsberg Swiss; I think Gruyere would also work well.
My recipe, including the amounts I used, is noted below.
Ingredients
Soup (about 4 servings)
- 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
- 4 cups sliced onions
- 1/4 cup pearl barley
- 3 tablespoons dry Sherry
- 5 cups chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth
- 2 pinches dried thyme
Flans (2)
- 1/2 tablespoon butter
- Handful sliced onions
- 1/4 cup light cream
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
- Added: 2 fresh sage leaves
- Added: approx 1/4 tsp white pepper
- Added: chopped chives, approximately 1 tsp
- 1/2 cup (packed) grated Jarlsberg cheese
To Make the Soup -
- Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium heat.
- Add onions; sauté until caramelized, about 30 minutes.
- Add barley and Sherry; cook 30 seconds.
- Add chicken stock and thyme. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
- Can be made up to one day in advance. Cool, cover, and chill. Bring to simmer before serving.
To Make the Flans -
- Preheat oven to 300°F.
- Place two 3/4-cup custard cups or soufflé dishes in baking pan.
- Melt butter in heavy skillet over medium heat.
- Add onions; sauté until tender but not brown, about 8 minutes. Add sage near the end of cooking the onions.
- Cool slightly; transfer to blender.
- Add cream, eggs, salt, and pepper; blend until smooth.
- Stir in cheese.
- Divide custard among prepared cups.
- Fill pan with enough hot water to come halfway up sides of cups. Bake flans until centers are softly set, about 30 minutes.
- Cool flans 10 minutes in pan. Cut around flans to loosen; turn out each in center of soup bowl. Ladle soup around flans and serve.
Another soup success! This was almost like a lighter French onion soup, but without the bread, and with the cheese in the form of the flan. Jon thinks beef broth would work as well, but it would be a heavier and richer soup. The presentation was beautiful - I would love to serve this soup at a dinner party.
The flan was delicious! I could have eaten it on its own. The changes I made - less onions, added sage, added white pepper, added chives -really worked and the result was a savory and creamy flan. This soup will be good for lunch tomorrow even without the flan as I only made 2 to try tonight.
Have a great week everyone!
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Carmelized onions make the best base for a soup! I like this recipe a lot!
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