How to Make Melted Onion Panade ~ delicious!
The other day I cooked and ate a strange and marvellous thing; a melted onion panade.
Panades are generally deemed to be part of the soup family but also, I think, are related to the bread and butter pudding clan, a bit strata-ish if you are an American.
Melted Onion Panade
Serves 4
Please use good (leftover) bread for this; I like sourdough, because it goes well with the onions (and I make my own sourdough) but any good rustic substantial sort of bread will do.
3 large onions
3 tbsp olive oil
350g good bread – thickly sliced
About 500ml good beef stock (or other if you prefer) – hot
200g grated cheese
~ Melt the onions in the olive oil and when utterly
tender turn up the heat and stir till starting to
caramelise.
~ Preheat the oven to 350°F/180ºC/160ºC fan/
gas 4.
~ Lay the sliced bread on a baking sheet and pop
in the oven for a few minutes till dried out but
not taking any colour.
~ Butter a shallow ovenproof dish and lay a third
of the bread slices in it. Break them if necessary
to fit in neatly.
~ Spread with half the onions and sprinkle with a
third of the cheese.
~ Repeat these layers, using up all the onions.
~ Top with the final third of bread and sprinkle
with the last of the cheese.
~ Pour over the stock, adding just enough to lift
the top layer of bread so it starts to float. Do
this gently so the cheese stays in place!
~ Cover the dish with a sheet of foil and bake for
45 minutes then remove the foil and bake
another 20 minutes or so till the cheese is
golden and delicious looking.
The result was a thick, warm, comforting (and cheap) sort of French Onion Porridge (OK, I admit it, I did add a tad of brandy to the stock). Really delicious and I won’t be at all surprised if I make it again quite soon.
Speaking of which, obviously this dish lends itself to the addition of any leftovers you have that need using up; wilted chard is traditional and kale fashionable but leftover cooked vegetables, meats, beans etc. will all work well.
And here is an entirely onion-appropriate photo I took on a recent trip to France, I’ve been waiting for a chance to post it!
Suzy Bowler
Having been a somewhat itinerant chef for over 30 years I was amazed, on my return to the UK, at the blatant food waste that now seems to be rife in the country; amazed and irritated. So much so that I decided to start a blog about spontaneous cooking from leftovers to show people that there are great alternatives to throwing food away.
One Comment
Sue
I really like the sound of this and it's so easy to make a smaller portion just for one with little bits of leftovers … right up my street.
What a nice review too!
Love the onion and bike picture – truly French 🙂