French Onion Soup & TFF California Cobb with Poached Shrimp and Green Goddess Dressing

I had planned the first day it cooled down the slightest to make French Onion Soup. It's one of my favorite soups, though I have several, and I've been having major withdrawals since I usually do most of my soup cooking in the winter. Well, the weather forecast for this week was saying we were going to have cooler weather. When I originally started thinking about my menu plan, Wednesday was going to be the coolest day of the week. Well, by the time it was time to get serious with what we were having and when, Monday became the coolest forecasted day of the week -- and the high was only going to be 68. Wow!! Mind you it's been in the 90's so that's a drastic (very much welcomed) change.

I have been wanting to make a Green Goddess salad dressing since I had a version of it at a Brazillion restaurant when I lived in Roanoke, VA (a good 2 years ago). I found a recipe online and added it to the menu plan.

When I sat down on Saturday to get everything organized, my menu plan and grocery list, I noticed Tyler Florence had a version in Stirring The Pot. It differed from the one I had found online, but looked more appealing, so I decided to go with his version. I had never intended to do his whole recipe, California Cobb With Poached Shrimp and Green Goddess Dressing, but rather just the dressing. But I ended up having half a bag of large shrimp leftover from our shrimp & scallop skewers on Friday night. So, I proceeded to make the complete recipe, with just a couple of changes (noted after the recipe).

2 large onions, sliced thin

4 tbsp unsalted butter

Sprinkle of thyme

2 bay leaves

Dash of Worcestershire sauce

32 oz. beef broth

10-1/2 oz beef consomme

French bread

Swiss cheese

In a large skillet, melt butter. Add sliced onion and caramelize, about 45 minutes. In a crock pot, add onions, sprinkle of thyme, 2 bay leaves, dash of Worcestershire sauce, beef broth, and beef consomme. (I put in the fridge at this point until the next morning.) Turn crock pot on low for 8 hours. In the evening, spoon soup into oven safe soup bowls, top with french toast, and Swiss cheese and broil until cheese is melted and bubbling.

This soup tastes just like what you would be served at any restaurant. Yum, yum, yum.

from Tyler Florence's Stirring The Pot

Green Goddess Dressing

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup store-bought mayonnaise

1 lemon, juice only

2 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped

1 anchovy fillet

1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley

1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro

2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon

2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Water, as needed

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Shrimp

1 lemon, halved

1 bay leaf

4 sprigs fresh thyme

4 black peppercorns

2 garlic cloves, peeled

1 tablespoon kosher salt

24 large shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 heads Bibb lettuce, leaves torn into bite-size pieces

8 slices bacon, cooked and cut into pieces

2/3 cups medium-size black pitted olives

1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

1 cup crumbled blue cheese

4 eggs, hard boiled and halved lengthwise

4 sprigs fresh cilantro, for garnish

To make the Green Goddess Dressing, combine sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon juice, garlic, anchovy, and herbs in a blenders and puree until light green and creamy. Add water as needed to achieve a smooth light consistency. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to come together. When ready to use, add lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

Fill a large pot with about 1/2 gallon water. Squeeze in the lemon juice and toss in lemon halves for extra flavor. Add the bay leave, thyme, peppercorns, garlic, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Simmer for 5 minutes to infuse the water with the aromatics. Before adding shrimp, bring water to a rolling boil. Add the shrimp, then remove from heat and allow shrimp to poach for 7 to 8 minutes, until they turn pink. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the shrimp from the poaching liquid to a bowl. Chill shrimp in the refrigerator.

To assemble, combine the lettuce, bacon, olives, grape tomatoes, and blue cheese in a bowl. Toss with Green Goddess Dressing to coat evenly. Arrange egg on top, followed by poached shrimp. Sprinkle with blue cheese. Garnish with cilantro.

**Changes - I made the dressing exactly as written (including anchovy fillet). Because the shrimp wasn't originally planned to be part of the meal, I had to use lemon juice from a bottle, dried thyme, and only had about 18-20 shrimp. The salad was done exactly as written except I omitted the tomatoes.

I was thrilled that I could prepare everything for this meal on Sunday, even though we weren't having it until Monday. Since I got everything ready for the soup and it only needed to be placed in the crock pot Monday morning, then spooned into soup bowls and broiled until the cheese had melted, and the dressing made so all the flavors could come together a day early, the shrimp already poached, and the eggs boiled, this made for a great Monday night dinner. I came home from a long day at work, to have a delicious, warming meal, in very little time.

I've already indicated on my blog that I love a good salad. And I have to say, this is one of the best salads I've ever had at home (and that says alot since I have made specialty salads on many occasions). The dressing was out of this world -- It had a certain tanginess, almost spicy flavor. Every ingredient in the salad complimented another ingredient. It was truly delicious.

I believe this is the best thing I've made so far by Tyler Florence (though I'm making two other recipes of his, still this week -- Ultimate Macaroni & Cheese and Grilled Brie and Tomato on Crusty Bread). I will submit this as one of my reviews at Tyler Florence Fridays. Please visit my friends at http://tylerflorencefridays.blogspot.com/ to see what they're cooking up.