Gambling on Restaurant Recipes

Gambling on Restaurant Recipes

My summer trip is about half over, and I am driving through Arkansas on my way to Texas and the West. I have been eating at dozens of restaurants, and am collecting restaurant recipes to bring back a bit of each of these different places to my hometown in New Hampshire. The particular restaurant recipe I am thinking about is not one that I have made recently, but an old and fond memory. Perhaps I am thinking about it because it is a soggy and gray day, and I could use a good comfort food. Perhaps a bit of the seacoast, for I remember eating this soup first on the wharves of San Francisco. It is a hearty soup served in bread bowls, and exactly what I would like right now.

Oddly enough, my favorite recipe for this comes from a very unusual place. It was served in the Bacchanal room in Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. Most of my recent food memories from Las Vegas are of extensive buffets with prime rib, and more food than anyone could ever care to eat, with a lot of glamour and bling. I am thinking so much of this particular recipe that I will add it to my collection of restaurant recipes, even though I am driving through flat farming fields rather than the desert heading into Las Vegas.

Onion Soup in Sourdough Bowls, serves four

4 8-ounce round sourdough loaves
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
2 1/2 cups chopped white onions
2 1/2 cups chopped leeks (white and pale green parts only; about 3 medium)
2 1/2 cups chopped red onions
6 large garlic cloves, minced
1 large shallot, chopped
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups dry Sherry
7 cups chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
1/2 cup whipping cream

Set oven at 350

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