Tag Archives: ground mustard

French Onion Soup

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For the longest time I wasn’t a fan of French Onion soup.  It was always overpowering and heavy on the stomach.  Then I met my husband who loves this soup.  But he had the same problem of finding a decent recipe.  We found one from Hannafords and then changed it a bit and now we have a soup that is very easy to make and we all love eating it.

To start melt 2 T of butter in a saucepan.

I thinly slice about 1 1/2 large onions and saute in the butter.  Cook until they start to soften and then add a tablespoon of sugar.  Stir well.  I found a lot of recipes called for 3 large onions but it would be too much of an onion flavour and you wouldn’t get a balance of all the flavours.

Saute for another 5 minutes or so.  Add 4 cups of broth.  We use the veg broth though most recipes call for a beef broth.  Heat until simmering.  Add a few squirts of stone ground mustard, 3 T of cognac, 3-4 T of Worcestershire sauce.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

I like it to simmer for awhile if I have the time for the flavours to really come together but once it is heated through it can be served.  I butter some bread and toast them to top the soup.  Then grate some Jarlsberg cheese over it all.  Broil until melted and serve.

This is perfect on a cold day or when your schedule is hectic.  And if you want a variation of this try the french onion grilled cheese sandwiches.   A big hit in my family.  🙂

Colcannon

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I’m not a fan of cooked kale by itself. I normally have to hide it in something like I do with my chili. A few weeks ago my mum made colcannon and we all loved it so I asked for the recipe as we have an abundance of kale to eat.  This is my version of her version of colcannon.  As I have said before we aren’t very good at following recipes exactly!  🙂

I start the potatoes for the mash at the beginning.

In an oven safe skillet I pour olive oil to cover the bottom.

I then chop up celery, onion, and garlic to saute in the olive oil.  The celery in our garden seems to be more leaf than stem this year but the flavour is still really good.

Saute for a few minutes.  In the meantime, boil some water to make 2 cups of broth.  I use the veg broth that we have.  Pour into the skillet and simmer. Add a bit of mustard, we used stone ground mustard to taste. Add the kale.

Simmer until the kale cooks down.

For the mash I add salt and pepper, butter, and milk.  Spread it over the kale mixture and top with cheddar cheese.  We used Kerry Gold that says it is from Ireland.  Wonder if it is actually sold in Ireland.  Either way it is tasty.

Pop the skillet under the broiler until it is a melty lovely golden colour.

We cooked up some Irish bangers to go on the side.  I have to say both went really well with the HP brown sauce.  🙂

This took about 30-40 minutes total to put together.  It’s a great meal for autumn and the kids love it.  Though when I mentioned we were having kale for dinner to my daughter’s friends they decided to eat at home.  Their loss!