Melt My Heart
I always have plenty of homemade soup in the freezer, and – no surprise – it comes out especially often in the winter months. In this past week’s Berkshire Eagle column, soup and its frequent lunch partner, grilled cheese, come together in a cider-onion soup topped with a slice of hearty bread with melted cheddar. Stay warm and cozy!
AN APPLE A DAY
by Elizabeth Baer
We got a surprise Christmas present this year: a new grandbaby born on Christmas Day, four weeks early! Mom and baby are doing fine, and, in fact, he was 6 pounds 9 ounces at birth, so quite good for 36 weeks!
The less good news is that the new baby and his two-and-a-half-year-old sister and his parents live in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As they say, you can’t get there from here.
The closest, regular, direct flights are out of LaGuardia or Newark, both of which would be a long drive, with worries about traffic, not to mention expensive parking! Driving to Albany or Bradley would be shorter, but that involves a flight change, usually in Chicago or Detroit. Even if we were to take a direct flight to Detroit and rent a car, it’s another 2+ hours to Grand Rapids. When it’s all said and done, door to-door, any of these options is at least 8 hours if everything goes perfectly smoothly, which is certainly less likely with air travel these days.
And so most of the time we drive. Lenox and Grand Rapids are at the same latitude, and it’s pretty much a straight shot across New York State into Canada, across southern Ontario and into Michigan, then continuing on to Grand Rapids. The drive time is ten and a half hours, and we have done it in as little as eleven, with stops only for gas and restroom breaks, most notably when we were coming back, literally an hour ahead of a snowstorm moving east! (We do have NEXUS which provides express border crossings to make this drive time possible. During the pandemic, when we couldn’t go through Canada, the drive time was twelve hours.)
Most often, however, we stop overnight, usually in Canada, frequently in London, Ontario where we have always had a fabulous dinner, having tried several places there! At one restaurant, in the middle of winter, I ordered the ale and onion soup, topped with a slice of bread and melted cheddar, and I wondered, “How would this be made with hard cider?” Fabulous, of course!
We have wonderful producers here in the Berkshires, including the Berkshire Cider Project and Hilltop Orchards, and any number of other cideries nearby in New York State, which adds to the appeal of this recipe.
As is my practice, when possible, I check variations, and the vegetarian version was just as tasty. I also tried making a slice of toasted bread with melted cheese to float on top, in case you don’t have broiler-safe soup crocks, and it works just fine. It’s vegan without the cheese, and can be gluten-free with gluten-free bread, although I did not taste either of these options.
And if you’re ever driving west across New York or through southern Ontario and want to know some places to stop, I’m keeping a running list!
CIDER-ONION SOUP
Makes about 6 cups
INGREDIENTS:
2 slices bacon, chopped, omit for vegetarian
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 4-5 tablespoons for vegetarian, plus more as needed
2 pounds onions, sliced into half-moons or quarter-rounds if large
½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
Generous grinding fresh pepper
8 ounces hard cider
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock, preferably low sodium
Per serving to finish:
1 slice good bread (gluten-free should work fine), no more than ½ inch thick
2 ounces shredded cheddar cheese, preferably not pre-shredded, preferably extra sharp
DIRECTIONS:
Place the bacon in a large saucepan or small pasta pot and turn on the burner to medium-high. Allow to cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the fat has rendered out. If not using pork or making it vegetarian, heat 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil in the pot over medium-high heat until shimmering.
Add about half of the onions and the salt, and sauté, stirring occasionally until they soften and there’s room to add the remaining onions. Depending on how much fat the bacon has given off, and the moisture of the onions, you may need to add more olive oil as you cook down the onions fully.
Continue to sauté the onions, stirring frequently and with great patience, until all the onions are fully softened and some are beginning to brown and stick to the pan about 10-15 minutes.
Add the cider and use a spoon to scrap up any bits sticking to the pan. Add the broth and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for another 10-15 minutes. Taste and add salt as needed. (The saltiness of both the bacon and the broth can vary so it’s best to under-salt at earlier stages of cooking.) Soup can be made to this stage and kept refrigerated until ready to serve. If so, bring to strong simmer before proceeding.
Toast as many bread slices as the intended number of servings. Turn broiler on to high. If you have broiler-safe bowls, place on a foil-lined half sheet pan and portion the soup into them. Float a piece of bread in each bowl and top with shredded cheese. Broil for 2-3 minute or until cheese is fully melted. If you don’t have broiler-safe bowls, place the slices of toast on a foil-lined sheet pan and top with the shredded cheese. Broil until cheese is melted, portion soup into regular bowls, and top each with a slice of the cheese toast.