French Onion Panade

I suggest to begin cooking the onions as Step 1, then make the toast. Grate the cheese and butter the pan while the onions and bread cook. The recipe steps make this dish seem complicated, but it's not. Perhaps the NYT food editors should reconsider the standard recipe outline used here and by most cookbooks and websites, and come up with a better format to reflect the way people actually cook at home.

This looks delightful and delicious and something I'd like to attempt. However I have to question the instructions. Like most recipes that call for baking or roasting, we're instructed to preheat the oven first, no matter how long it takes to arrive at the moment the dish is placed in the oven. In this instance it appears to be over an hour from the time we're told to heat the oven. Of course most of us know to ignore or read through this step, but still...

Why would you read a recipe for baked bread and cheese in a search for healthy eating? This is a simple and straightforward meal, and not everyone chooses to eat healthily all the time. This is a dish with history and culture, too.

I've had a shamelessly deep affair with panade since my lucky introduction in madame L'Eplatinier's sal de cuisine, 1986. Her stern tutelage belied panade's history: As a nourishing way to use simple ingredients and help her family survive the privations of WWII.

This recipe is incredible. But I think it absolutely shines when twice baked. Either bake the day before or earlier the day of. Baking twice creates a drier, crispier panade with more concentrated flavors. Sometimes I’ll add fresh thyme to each layer or substitute beef stock which works as well.

This is ridiculously complex. In my house I would slice up onions and put In the crockpot with wine and butter. When I get home I layer onions with the cheese and onion mix with fresh parsley in a baking dish, I would take the leftover random meats and vegetables out of the fridge and pressure cook them and strain the stock into the pan and bake. It doesn't matter if the oven is preheated. Add extra cheese to the top and broil. Done and now you have used up most of your leftovers too!

I love the comments about the recipe and those that contribute to our knowledge. But I deplore the pseudo-scientific / medical advice. I don't think a random comment equating carb and protein spikes and the need to add fat with both is appropriate. If you want to give medical advice, include your credentials.

The woman across the dinner table was a psychologist. But for the 3 glasses of wine consumed she may not have asked, 'HOW do you stay SO well adjusted given your diagnosis?". This during course 3 as I mentioned living with progressive CNS disease for 40 years. "Cooking and food", I said. Specifically this kind of food and cooking. Making this kind of dish is Zen-time for me. And in this recipe it is as if I heard Samin's voice in my kitchen with me. So delicious!

As with any simple country recipe, the originators of the recipe would have used whatever stale bread/cheese they had on hand, so get creative! I usually try to find 3-4 recipes of the same dish to compare and see what kind of wiggle room there is, prepare it according to combo of best the first time, and then have fun making it my own after that. This seems like one of those recipes- best not to get too religious about the details, but use it as a learning tool to gain some new skills.

I made this and yes, like other experienced cooks, I started the onions first. The 2d time I made this, I used half the onions and added brown mushrooms and butternut spaghetti the last 15 minutes and spinach the last 5. Also delicious and a bit more nutritious

It really depends on what kind of stove you have. I was disgusted with the way my high-end Thermador was baking until the technician told me that most of the commercial-type home ranges need to preheat an hour because of the way they cycle-very high, back down, and so on, as they preheat. After an hour, they've stabilized. Please, if someone knows better, let us know! But meantime, that's the way I operate, and the baking is going better.

Perhaps there should be a new tab for those comments ranting about the healthfulness (or health-lessness) of the recipes!

I've made variations of this with different kinds of cheese and bread, both water and chicken stock and it always turns out wonderful. It is hard to go wrong with this. You can simplify some steps and it still works.

equally good with beef stock and some dark beer as the liquid.

Made a variation. Saw this on ABC 7, from restaurant Houseman. Cooked the 2-3 medium size onions, added 1-2 tbsp whole grain mustard, 1-2 tbsp wh wine vinegar, 1-2 tsp salt. Toasted a small ciabatta roll, put onion mixture on roll, then slice gruyere, melted under broiler. Great lunch or cut up as hor d’oeuvre.