Taste Buds: French Dinner! Part 2: Soupe a l’Oignon au Fromage

Simply, French onion soup. Well hello there friends. It has been a while. Forgive me, but you know how it is, life gets in the way of blogging. This is indeed Part 2 of a French Dinner that was held sometime around September. Some weeks ago, I posted Part 1, which was the Braised Fingerling Potato Coins that was inspired by a recipe from Chez Panisse in Berkeley. I mentioned in that post that we had a three-course meal when in fact, we had four courses! I forgot to mention this soup, which is co-cooking club member Josh’s specialty. He’s been making this for years so he has tweaked some stuff from the Epicurious recipe that he got it from.

Here’s what you need for what will serve 6 diners:

6 large onions (about 5 pounds), sliced thin
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
1tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/2 quarts beef broth (Josh actually uses 50% beef broth and 50% chicken broth)
twelve 1/2-inch-thick slices of French bread, toasted
3/4 pound coarsely grated Gruyère

… and Josh’s secret ingredient: SHERRY!

This was essentially very easy to make, but it takes quite a while to get those onions to turn into that soft, caramelized consistency.

So here’s how you do it:

Cook the onions in the butter in a large kettle. You want to cooke it slowly so that use only moderate heat while stirring frequently. This will take about 40 minutes. You want the onions to be golden brown. Sprinkle the onions with the flour and cook the mixture, stirring, for 3 minutes. I believe this is the part when the sherry is added. Add enough for all that onion to absorb the sherry.

Add the broth slowly, stir the soup constantly until it comes to a boil, and simmer it, covered, for 20 minutes. Season the soup with salt and pepper.

Put 2 slices of the toast in each of 6 heated soup bowls, top each toast with 1 tablespoon of the Gruyère, and pour the soup over the toasts. Additionally, top the soup with more Gruyère. You don’t have to, but this is what we did. Bake for about 3 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

This was Chef’s favorite dish of the night, and Cindy has also made this on her own. It’s very easy and such a comfort food. Well, I’m sure for the French, it is. And so it shall be for the French at heart.