Well, I’m still on my soup kick from last week. In a few months, after weeks of winter, I might be sick of soup and longing grilled dinners, but for now, soup is where it’s at for me. I received several requests for a recipe for French Onion Soup this week, which gave me a craving of my own, so I decided to oblige.
I’ve always liked French Onion Soup. Strangely though, it’s always been something that I’ve ordered out at a restaurant on a cold winter’s night, rather than making it myself at home. When I’ve had it at restaurants, I enjoy the whole bowl, but my favorite part is the gorgeous melted cheese and bread that floats on top, supported by the bed of caramelized onions below. Just the look of a piping hot bowl of French Onion Soup can warm you up and make you feel nourished. The challenge with this ever-so-popular soup, however, comes as soon as you pick up your spoon. It is by far the most difficult soup to eat elegantly. When I made French Onion Soup for myself this week, I was reminded of that as soon as I sat down. How do you break through the bread and cheese crust with only a spoon and without getting soup all over the place (and placemat!). Once through the crust, how many times will you have to wipe burning hot onions from you chin as they slurp off the spoon onto your face?
I pondered these questions while I ate my soup (making a mess and wiping my chin) and decided that the solutions are really quite simple. First of all, after slicing the onions, give them a rough chop to make the slices a little shorter. They will still caramelize beautifully, but they will no longer be as likely to fall from your spoon or lips, scorching your chin. Second, instead of placing one thick slice of bread on top of the soup, make the bread into croutons and scatter them on top, covered with grated cheese. That will make it easier to break through into the soup with a spoon, and eating a cheesy crouton is much easier than trying to manage a massive slab of scalding bread and cheese.
Of course, after a little while, it dawned on me that there is another way to solve the problems of eating French Onion Soup… Slow down. Take a little time to eat dinner and let the soup cool a little from it’s scorching hot, straight-out-from-under-the-broiler state. I’m not one to do many things slowly, but it wouldn’t kill me to take spend some down time over dinner.
French Onion Soup has been around since Roman times, and used to be considered soup for the poor. Onions were easy to grow and inexpensive, so the impoverished would make a soup from onions, topping it with just a piece of bread and cheese. With that reputation, it fell out of favor for many years, but experienced a resurgence in popularity in the United States in the 1960s. It’s a luxurious soup that is still relatively inexpensive to make, but it takes a long time to make and as I figured out, it takes a long time to eat. In our busy lives, it’s not such a bad thing to take the time to make a meal. At least it won’t break the bank.
French Onion Soup
This version of French Onion Soup caramelizes the onions in the oven instead of on the stovetop. It takes a little longer, but you don’t have to spend as much of that time attending the onions while they brown. The critical components of the soup are a very high-quality stock and delicious, nutty Gruyère cheese.
Serves 4 (or perhaps 6)
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 5 large yellow onions, peeled and sliced lengthwise from stem to root (optional: rough chop once after slicing for shorter lengths of onion in your soup)
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon brown sugar
- ½ cup white wine
- ¼ cup dry sherry
- 3 to 4 cups low-sodium chicken stock
- 3 to 4 cups low-sodium beef stock
- 6 1-inch slices of baguette or other French bread, cut into 1-inch cubes and toasted
- 6 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated
Directions:
- Pre-heat the oven to 350º F and pre-heat a large roasting pan over medium heat.
- Add the olive oil, onions, garlic, thyme and bay leaf to the roasting pan and heat until the onions are sizzling.
Cut a large piece of parchment paper the size of the roasting pan and press the parchment paper into the pan, pressing down on the onions to cover. Transfer the roasting pan to the oven and let the onions brown slowly for 75 to 90 minutes, stirring with a spatula (to scrape up the bottom) every 20 to 30 minutes.
- Add the brown sugar for the last 15 minutes of cooking and continue until the onions are nicely brown, but not burned. (If the pan seems to get too dark at any time during the process, add a little water or a little of the white wine to the onions, stir and proceed.)
- Once the onions are brown, add the white wine and deglaze the pan, scraping up any brown bits on the bottom. At this point, your onions will probably have reduced enough to transfer them to a 4-quart Dutch oven on the stovetop.
Add the chicken and beef stocks and simmer everything together for about 30 minutes.
- Pre-heat the broiler.
- Divide the soup between four soup crocks. Place a handful of toasted baguette croutons on each crock of soup and cover with the grated Gruyère cheese.
- Using a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan, transfer all the soup crocks to the broiler and broil until the cheese has melted and is starting to brown. Remove from the oven and serve.
- Take your time. Enjoy dinner.
