Fromage Fort Grilled Cheese

Did you have a fancy Valentine's Day dinner with a cheese plate? Did you decide to ride out the weekend's sub-zero temperatures* with some comforting mac and cheese? Did your Mom come to visit and leave behind a half-empty bottle of Chardonnay? 

*For my East Coast friends, obviously, since here in SF El Nino has deserted us for summer again. 

If you said yes to any of the above, let me introduce you to your new best friend, a superhero that will swoop in and rid your fridge of any last scraps of cheese you don't know what do do with or that last pour of leftover white wine that's not quite enough for a glass. Fromage fort will take all of your sad, remaining knobs of brie or goat cheese or cheddar or parmesan, or really anything you have, and with a little bit of garlic and wine, turn it into the cheese spread of your dreams. You could stop there, but why would you, when you can then toast some bread, slather on the cheese, toast it again until gooey and golden with crispy frico edges, then slap two of those toasts together into the the meltiest and least boring grilled cheese sandwich of your life. 

You're welcome.

You might have some questions, like "Does it matter what kind of cheese  I use?" or, "Does it still go with tomato soup?" or, "What is leftover wine?"

The answers to those, in order, is no, as long as you have one good melter in there and no conflicting flavors; yes, it goes amazingly with tomato soup; and LOL I don't know either.

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Fromage Fort Grilled Cheese

Cheese spread adapted from Jacques Pepin. Makes enough for 3 or 4 sandwiches.

8 oz cheese (any kind you have leftover, preferably at least one that melts well)
1 clove garlic
1/2 shallot (or one small)
1/4 cup dry white wine
fresh ground black pepper
salt, if needed
slices of good bread
butter or olive oil

1. In a food processor, combine garlic and shallot and pulse to chop.  Add cheeses, wine, and black pepper and pulse to combine. Taste and add salt if necessary.
2. Take an even number of slices of good crusty bread and generously butter one side, or brush with olive oil. Toast under a broiler until golden. Flip slices over and spread a generous amount of fromage fort on each. Place back under the broiler and toast until golden and melting.
3. Remove from oven and sandwich the slices together. Serve immediately.

"Red Wine & Chocolate" Sundaes

I’ve got a new podcast obsession these days*, one that has me DVRing old movies and thinking about classic pairings like Fred and Ginger, Bogart and Bacall, Audrey and Givenchy.**

*You Must Remember This. Listen to the episode on Clark Gable and Carol Lombard. Try not to bawl your eyes out.

** It also has me thinking about J. Edgar Hoover and Howard Hughes, but the former’s suspicions about how everyone in Hollywood was a Communist and the latter’s man-whoring are maybe not Valentine’s Day appropriate.

Red wine and chocolate are one of those classic pairings, too, no? Or, how about blue cheese and bacon, PB&J, french fries and a Frosty? Red wine and chocolate top them all, in my opinion, maybe because I don’t like blue cheese, but really, how do you beat red wine and chocolate when they team up?

I’m not the only one who thinks so, at least not in wine country, where you can often find Cabernet paired with chocolate truffles, or as I recently discovered, poured into a batch of chocolate sauce. I bought a bottle, and as usually happens with impulse purchases, had no real plan for what to do with it other than pouring it onto a spoon, so I put it away until inspiration struck. It wasn’t long before I was dreaming up ice cream sundaes with chocolate cake and that sauce, and then I knew that the cake had to have red wine in it too, to mimic the sauce, and that was it.  

I used the red wine chocolate cake from Smitten Kitchen as a guide, partly because I still get apprehensive sometimes about experimental baking and also partly because the story that goes along with that particular post is maybe the only romantic 9/11 story I’ve ever heard and it made me “aww” when I read it. She paired her cake with mascarpone, but as it turns out, it also goes excellently with vanilla ice cream, strawberries, and for an extra oomph of booze, that cabernet chocolate sauce. It’s a decadent treat perfect for Valentines, Galentines, or just because it’s Friday.

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"Red Wine & Chocolate" Sundaes

Makes 4 sundaes. Red wine chocolate cake adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

2-3 tbs butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
splash of vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
pinch of baking soda
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp kosher salt
1/4 plus 1/8 cup of red wine

1 pint vanilla ice cream
red wine chocolate sauce (you can buy here, or use another chocolate sauce)
1/2 cup strawberries, hulled and quartered

1. Prepare a 6-inch cake pan. Line the bottom with parchment and grease with butter or cooking spray. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Put butter and sugars in the bowl of a mixer and beat until fluffy and fully combined. Add in egg and vanilla and beat until fully incorporated. Add in the dry ingredients in two batches, alternating with the red wine.
4. Pour into the prepared baking pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove cake from pan and let cool completely. 
5. To make sundaes, cut out 2-inch circles from the cake layer. You should be able to get four circles. The baker gets the scraps!
6. Place a cake circle in the bottom of a small bowl (or stemless wine glass) and top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Drizzle with chocolate sauce and garnish with strawberries.

Easy French Onion Soup

And the slow cooker magic continues! 

I recently found out that you can caramelize onions in a slow cooker.

Mind. Blown.

I love caramelized onions, but I do not like making them, because to get them perfectly mellow and sweet and not burned requires patience, like a thirty or forty-five minutes worth of standing at the stove level of patience that I don't often have. But with a slow cooker, you can literally throw your onions in the crock, walk away, enjoy your day, and come back to a pile of perfectly caramelized goodness. Yes, please. Add in some homemade oxtail broth and you have yourself a pretty amazing french onion soup.

In fact, I have to admit this soup is pretty much the reason I decided to make bone broth using oxtail. A friend and I used to go sometimes to this French bistro in my neighborhood that had a great rose selection and the best french onion soup I'd ever had, made with oxtail broth. The restaurant has since closed, but I still think about that soup sometimes, and so I decided to try to replicate it using my slow cooker. I think I got pretty close! 

Even if you don't make your own broth, this soup is delicious, and so easy to do on a weekend day while you get errands done or go have fun, and at the end of the day you can curl up with a bowl of soup that tastes like you spent hours standing at the stove to make it, except you didn't, and isn't that the dream?  

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Easy French Onion Soup

Serves 4. Caramelized onion method adapted from Jonathan Reynolds.

For the soup:
1 lb onions, thinly sliced
2 tbs balsamic vinegar, divided
2 tbs butter
generous pinch of salt
1 tsp flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried thyme
4 cups oxtail broth (or other beef broth)
splash of brandy

For the cheese toasts:
1 small baguette, cut into 1/2 inch slices
gruyere cheese, sliced thinly or shredded
1 small handful fresh parsley, chopped

1. Caramelize the onions. In a slow cooker, add the onions, 1 Tbs balsamic vinegar, butter and salt, and cook for at least 6 hours on low, until onions are softened and caramelized.
2. Add flour and another Tbs balsamic vinegar to the onions and stir to combine, then add a tsp of salt, dried thyme, and the broth. Cook on low for at least 2 hours. The soup will be done at this point but the longer you cook it the more intense the flavors will be. When ready to serve, stir in a splash of brandy.
3. To serve: butter baguette slices and toast on both sides under the broiler, add a couple slices of gruyere to each slice and place back under the broiler until cheese is melted and turning golden. Ladle soup into bowls and place two cheese toasts in each bowl. Garnish with the parsley.