Sunday, November 14, 2010

from the "archives"-- french onion soup

this recipe comes from my other blog. i was browsing on it, looking for this recipe-- because it's getting cold and i'm in soup mode. this is one of the best soups ever, especially for winter. and i love how much better it tastes than even one from a restaurant, which is usually too salty for me. this one has a delicious sweetness to it, if you use the right type of onion and *accidentally* double the sugar during the carmelization process.


so, enjoy one of my favorite recipes!

I have this sort of ongoing goal to try a few new recipes every week. This week, you may have seen my horrible attempt at Orange Chicken. Absolutely inedible. Boo.

Well. It's all better this time. I made French Onion Soup for the first time ever and it was amazing. So good, it's worth sharing the recipe with you.

1. Slice 7-ish medium to large yellow or purple onions, and sautee in some olive oil. I bought a special slicer for it (a mandolin), where you run them along it and it slices them really thin. It went so fast! By the time Chris had peeled an onion, I was waiting to slice it. I love it.


Simmer the onions for quite a while. Serious. Like, maybe 40 minutes. 10 minutes into the cook time, add about a half teaspoon of sugar. It helps with the caramelization. Now, mine never actually caramelized, but they got plenty cooked and delicious. After they're cooked, add two cloves of minced garlic and sautee for another minute or so.

2. Add 8 cups beef stock (*not* broth!), 1/2 cup dry red wine, 1 bay leaf, some thyme, and some salt and pepper. Don't add too much salt.


3. Simmer it together for about 30 minutes to let the flavors mingle, then ladle into individual oven-proof bowls.

4. Top with a piece of french bread toast and some cheese. The original post called for gruyere cheese, but Walmart didn't have it (surprise!), so I got Havarti because I know it melts well. Broil for about 10 minutes.


5. Immediately after removing from the oven, top with some fresh parmesan cheese. My only change will be adding more cheese next time.

This one got rave reviews from my new roomie and from my boyfriend. Yay!

1 comment:

Kyrstin said...

I remember seeing this one! I'm now going to have to print it as well! :-)