Wednesday, January 20, 2010

French Onion Soup (YUM!)

Warm, gooey, yummy, easy... I want it!
French Onion Soup (Yum!)
What you need:
6-8 Yellow Onions, Cut in half, then sliced thinly
4 cans of Beef Stock or 5 Bouillion cubes
(Try Vegan Beef flavor if a vegetarian!)
2 cups Water
2 tbsp Butter
1 tbsp Olive Oil
3/4 cup - 1 cup Sherry Wine -- can use any white wine you prefer or have laying around!
Black Pepper to taste
3 Bay Leaves
1 small Sprig of Thyme (or 1/2 tsp Dried Thyme)
1 tsp Sea Salt
if using boullion cubes you need 1 cup of water for each cube!
Also need cheese and croutons (see after recipe for soup)

In a large sauce pan/ cast iron skillet/ 4 quart pot place butter, oil, and onions. Over low heat, cover and let simmer for about 15-20 minutes. You can stir them if you are nervous they will burn, but what you want is seriously caramelized goods!

When the onions are light brown, soft, and pretty much as cooked as they can be without losingthe sweet flavors, whisk in the wine to de-glaze (simple term meaning get the yum of the bottom of the pan!) the onions. Add the Stock, Water, salt, bay-leaves, thyme, and black pepper, and leave to simmer overlow-medium heat for 1 hour. Remove Bay Leaves (and thyme sprig if using fresh thyme). Here's that yummy part!

Before serving you need that ooooey goooey part! Cheesey Croutons!

Cheesey Croutons:
You can skip the showing off here to save money, and place your favorite salad croutons on top the soup. You can make your own large croutons, by making use of stale bread -- spice it up with olive oil, garlic powder, italian seasoning, and toast). You can also customize the cheese: Provologne, Swiss, White American, Feta, Chevre, Blue Cheese Crumbles, and Montery Jack are my top favorites with this soup!

Make sure your soup bowls are oven safe, or use a blow-torch, or keep oven open. (seriously used for cooking! though most people do not have one around, so leave the oven door open when broiling...safest way to prevent broken bowls, I do it all the time!-- OR USE A BREAD BOWL! Turn the oven to broil and let it get toasty (only works in electric ovens). Pour a bowl of soup, top it with the croutons you choose, then some cheese, and let it melt under the broiler. The whole toasting the cheese is not necessary really though, the soup is so hot the cheese will melt. This is just something to make it golden brown as well.

Pictured with VEGETABLE STOCK (high in carrot hence orange broth color) 1 piece of white bread with garlic powder, White Zin for the wine (I was drinking some!), and White American Cheese! Added Parsley flakes simply for decoration!


XOXO,

Aimee

PS: This is why cooking is so much fun! Switch it up! Skip out on the wine, use water to de-glaze, then add a guiness or an amber or porter beer. Wow! Tasty!!!!

5 comments:

  1. Oh man, this soup recipe is so good! I am starving! I am going to cook it this week for sure, and make a home-made bread bowl!

    YUM!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I LOVE French Onion soup! Have many recipes for it, but will try yours this weekend! Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is my husbands favorite soup! This looks like a great recipe. Gotta have the cheesy croutons on top!

    ReplyDelete

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