Several years ago we dined in a lovely bistro in the heart of the financial district downtown Toronto called Forte Bistro and Lounge. JT had read about Chef Greg Argent in one of our foodie magazines and he knew right away we had to experience his cooking! Sadly, the restaurant is no longer around but the delicious memories of Chef Argent’s cuisine still lingers on.
One such dish was the unique French Onion Soup Dumplings ($11): a tender pasta dumpling filled with braised veal broth and gruyère cheese; what made this tasty dumpling so unusual was the surprise of the explosion of veal glacé that would fill you mouth with flavour after biting into the tender pasta, immediately reminding you of French Onion Soup! I have tried many times to recreate this wonderful dish without success and then Chef Argent revealed his ‘secret’ when I asked how he does it. Today I will share with you the secret of the tasty, unassuming little dumpling, but you must swear never to speak of it again! Although the recipe is laborious, I urge you to make a batch to serve as an amuse bouche or little hors d’œuvres at your next Super Bowl party (you may freeze uncooked dumplings on a parchment lined sheet lightly dusted with flour and then put them into a zip-lock bag), you will not only thank me for the wonderful compliments your lucky guests bestow upon you, you may even wish to send me gifts! 😉
French Onion Soup Pillows
makes 60 single bite pillows
Ingredients for the broth:
- 0.5 kg (about 1 pound) Beef bones or oxtail bones
- 130 g (about 4.5 oz) sweet onion, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp merlot salt (from my friend Kristy at Eat, play, love; our family food adventures)
- 600 mL water, divided
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tbsp cooking sherry
- 3 g (a scant teaspoon) powdered gelatine (agar agar will not work here)
- 1 cup caramelized onions (please click here for a great recipe)
- Home made pasta dough or 60 square won ton wrappers (for a great pasta dough recipe, please check out Chicago John’s kitchen)
- Gruyère cheese to garnish
Directions for the broth:
- Preheat oven to 350°F 177°C. Put a 11.5 cm x 21.5 cm (4 1/2″ x 8 1/2″) metal loaf pan into the freezer.
- Sear the beef bones well on high heat. Remove from pan and set aside. Deglaze the pan with 1 tbsp cooking sherry or port. Add the onions to the pan and sauté for a minute or so on the residual heat from searing. Spread the onions out evenly on the bottom of the pan. Return the beef bones to the pan and nestle into the onions, add the merlot salt, bay leaf and 300 mL water. Cover with tin foil and roast in the oven for about 1 hour, checking occasionally to make sure the water hasn’t evaporated, top up as needed.
- Remove pan from oven and remove tin foil. Add an additional 200 mL water and boil on the stove top until liquid is reduced to about 150 mL (about 5 oz). Strain through a fine sieve and press as much liquid out of the cooked onions as possible.
- Set aside about 60 mL (1/4 cup) of the stock and cool. Keep the remainder stock on a soft boil.
- Stir the gelatine into the cooled stock until melted. Add the boiling stock and stir well. Allow to cool to room temperature and pour into the super cooled loaf pan. Refrigerate until set.
Directions for assembling the pillows:
- Roll out the pasta dough to #4 thickness on the Kitchenaid Pasta roller (less than 1 mm or 0.125 inch). Using a 6-7cm (2.5″ -2.75″) oval cookie cutter, cut out the ovals to make both sides of the pillows.
- Remove the jelled broth from the fridge and cut into 0.5-1cm (0.25″-0.5″) rectangles.
- Onto each oval, more or less centred, add one jelled broth rectangle and about 1/4 tsp caramelized onion. Wet your finger and run a wet bead along the outer edge of the pasta oval. Turn up both sides of the oval and squeeze the edges together to bind — you don’t want these pillows to burst open when boiling.
- Lightly flour a parchment lined baking sheet and add each finished pillow to it so as not to touch each other. Freeze and bag frozen pillows into a zip lock bag or container. Use as many as needed.
- Bring an appropriate amount of salted water to a boil. Add frozen pillows and boil until they float to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon onto a clean dish cloth to drain off water. Present on a Chinese soup spoon and garnish with a small amount of finely grated gruyère cheese. Brûlée the cheese until it is golden and crispy. Serve immediately.
[…] years ago, I replicated some French Onion Soup Pillows from a long-gone, favourite restaurant. They somehow managed to get the delicious French onion soup […]
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[…] why not make a French Onion Soup from it (we’ve made French Onion Soup here and here and here before)? And that is the way this recipe came about. It’s so easy and inexpensive that I […]
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It has taken me some time to get here, Eva, but I sure am glad that I did! These “pillows” are wonderful and a fantastic way to start a meal. I like everything about these and it’s great that they can be made and frozen in advance. It makes them so much easier to serve to guests — but no less impressive. Speaking of impressive, that you were able to replicate this dish from one that you were served is amazing! Well done, Eva. 🙂
(Thanks, too, for the shout-out!)
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John you always make me blush, you have such flattering words, thank you! These little pillows are definitely worth the effort, I love to see the surprise on guests’ faces as they bite into one!
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These look so heavenly! Inspiration for a nice sit-down dinner for special friends who have to be worthy enough to taste such exquisiteness! 🙂
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Welcome to my blog Noela and thank you kindly for the lovely words.
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Aaah, so that’s how you got the soup inside! Ok, damn, I’m impressed! That’s very nifty, but my goodness they look, as you said, laborious to make! Not something for every day that’s for sure, but for the occasional special event I bet they’d go down fantastically!
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H Charles, yes indeed they are quite laborious to make but well worth it, I assure you. You can split it up by making the soup one day, the caramelized onion on a another day and then assembly!
They do go down rather fantastically!
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Well, I’ve had my share of dumplings before but never onion soup pillows! These are fantastic Eva! I can well imagine the sensational taste of each bite and reward for your hard work. I suspect once you’re on a roll with your mise en place, things move along quite nicely too. Although I’m not one to spend hours on a recipe, this one may be worth every moment ;-). Love!
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Thanks so much Kelly, they do take a bit of planning but you are quite right they come together reasonably quickly once you get everything organized! I hope you try it, it’s really quite the sensation.
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I loved these the minute I saw them on Facebook! I especially love that their called Pillows.. it conjures up thoughts of comfort food! I could have a plateful of these lovelies whilst laying on my own pillow but I think they’re too pretty not to share!! Well done!! xx
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Thank you so much Barbara, you are very sweet. I’m glad to have been able to squeeze them into my posting schedule, I had to move things around but at least I got it in before the Superbowl!
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What a cool concept. I love French onion soup and the idea of it in a smaller package is awesome.
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Thanks Greg, they were darn tasty too.
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wow, such a comforting and delicious onion ravioli….
lovely named as pillow too, i guess it’s as soft as a pillow too!!!
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Thanks so much Dedy, I appreciate your kind words.
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Thank you for sharing the secret with us Eva. That is a delicious spin on French onion soup!
Now I need to invite some people over to have an excuse to make this
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Hi Sawsan, thank you for your kind words, I’m certain your family would appreciate these pillows too!
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What a fun spin on french onion soup. Caramelized onion pillows. I can’t wait to try this recipe. Thanks for the inspiration! Take Care, BAM
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Thanks Bam, I really do hope you try it and let me know what you think.
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What an incredible sounding dish! They make xiao long baos in a similar way and I just love that burst of liquid!
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Hi Lorraine, I’ve not had Xiao Long Boas yet, but a few commenters have mentioned it and now I am rather curious. From what I’ve read, they are indeed very similar in execution but of course the stuffing is quite different.
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Gruyere is one of my favorite cheese as is french onion soup so this is definitely one to try. Thanks, Eva!
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Thank you for your lovely comment SM.
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These look just down right heavenly Eva! I can almost taste them from here (and certainly wish I was tasting them). I’m so glad that the merlot salt came in handy too! (Thank you for the mention. 🙂 ) I will definitely have to put these on my to do list. Delish!!!!
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Hi Kristy, when you and Mike come to Toronto I’ll serve these for the amuse bouche for dinner!
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Truly a beautiful dish, and I can just imagine how wonderful these taste and the play of textures. Bravo, Eva!
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Thank you kindly Betsy, I really enjoyed making these and serving them. I loved watching the surprise as my guests bit into them. My nephew even said he could eat a whole bowl of them!
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I haven’t tasted one of course, but I’m with your nephew just by the looks of these! And, I’ll bet yours look and taste every bit as good as the chef’s. 🙂
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Very kind of you to say, Betsy, JT thought they tasted better 😉 !
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These are some lovely dumplings!
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Talk about pillows from heaven! That’s downright wonderful.
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Thank you kindly Maureen, what a lovely compliment.
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How lovely. The dumplings that would be perfect at a dinner party. I don’t know about serving them to my Superbowl crowd…they think a big platter of chilled shrimp with cocktail sauce is fancy. 🙂
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Thanks so much Karen, I know what you mean regarding the Superbowl crowd!
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Was a bit puzzled when I saw the title. but totally got it after reading through the recipe. Same principle as the Chinese soup dumplings. Glad you nailed the recipe, worth the effort especially since these pillows freeze well. I will probably cheat and use wonton wrappers
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Hi Norma, now you and Maria (A_Boleyn) have me curious to the Chinese soup dumplings, I’ve never had one!
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These are right up my street Eva. I think they may get getting made for my next guests.
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Glad you like it David, do let me know how it works out if you make them.
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These do look like a very impressive dish and something I would serve on a very special occasion. They really are very pretty little pillows and I love how there’s an oozing of delicious broth when you bite into them – very special! xx
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Thanks so much Charlie, they really are quite special. I’m glad I was able to get about 60 out of this batch.
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Congratulations for having managed to recreate such a succulent dish! And thank you for revealing us the secret 🙂 (You were very lucky to get it! Not all the chefs would be eager to reveal their secrets…). Your dumplings look so beautiful! They also remind me I haven’t made any dumplings for ages, neither European nor Asian…
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Hi Sissi, thanks so much for your lovely words. I’ve never had Chinese Soup dumplings before so now I am rather curious about them.
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OMG, Eva, how absolutely exquisite! Yum.
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Lovely little dumplings. They remind me of the soup dumplings that you get in some dim sum places which are filled with broth. The secret is in the gelatinized stock placed inside and sealed then steamed so they liquify and burst in your mouth. A great French version with the taste of French onion soup. Your dishes are always a taste treat but especially the unique appetizers.
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Thanks so much Maria, you are always so complimentary with your comments. I haven’t had a Chinese Soup dumpling before, Norma also mentioned it so now I shall have to go searching around for them. Perhaps my next dinner party will consist of Dim Sum!
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It’s not served in every dim sum restaurant and eating them is kind of tricky They’re called xiao long bao and this is a fun video on the different ways to eat or NOT eat them. 🙂
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Thank you for that video, very informative. I wondered how one would eat a dumpling of that size with boiling liquid on the inside. My pillows are significant’y smaller and can be taken into the mouth in one bite. I’m really curious to the Chinese Soup Dumpling now, they look delightful!
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