I'm In Love with French Onion Soup

I've always loved french onion soup. In my mind it was something special that I only ordered at fine dining restaurants with my parents. There was something about that special bowl with the handle and all the gooey cheese on top - They must have had some special blow torch I thought.

Later when I started waiting tables I realized that there was nothing really special about all that melted cheese. Just a broiler and an oven proof bowl.

But I still never thought french onion soup was something I should serve up at home. I'm not sure why, but it's always been reserved for eating out, even though it's been years since I ordered it.

This weekend I was inspired to eat it again, thanks to my Aunt Julie who was visiting from California and brought a couple of loaves of sourdough bread from Bourdin's Bakery. Bourdin's sourdough is the best, and all I could think about was soup.

Of course I wanted to make french onion from scratch, so I had to learn all about deglazing and slicing onions the right way. I was surprisingly simple and surprisingly cheap - I mean it's really a bunch of onions and broth. And in the end, it was fantastic, just like I remembered from the restaurants with my parents. I made a big batch Saturday afternoon and it was gone by Sunday afternoon. It's definitely something I will make again, and again.

Here's the recipe I used from Cook's Illustrated:


Ingredients
3 tbs unsalted butter, cut into three pieces
6 large yellow onions (about 4 lbs), halved and cut pole to pole in 1/4 inch thick slices (I suggest you ask your spouse/roommate/friend to do this)
Table salt
2 cups of water
1/2 cup of dry sherry
4 cups of low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups of beef broth
6 sprigs of fresh thyme, tied with kitchen twine
1 bay leaf
Ground black pepper
Small baguette, cut into 1/2 inch slices (or Bourdin's sourdough bread)
8 oz of Gruyere cheese, shredded (feel free to experiment with the type of cheese)

Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat to 400 degrees. Spray large dutch oven with cooking spray, and add butter, onions and 1 tsp of salt. Cover and cook, 1 hour. Remove pot from oven and stir onions, scraping bottom and side of pot. Return to oven, leaving the lid ajar and cook for another 90 minutes, stirring onions after about the one hour mark.

Place pot on the stove top on medium-high heat. Cook until liquid evaporates, stirring frequently. Keep cooking until a brown crust forms on the bottom of pot, adjusting heat if necessary. Add 1/4 cup of water and scrap bottom of pan to loosen crust. Keep cooking until another crust forms and repeat water. Keep doing this until the onions are dark brown. I probably did it four times. On last crust, add the sherry instead of water and cook until sherry evaporates.

Add broth, water, thyme, bay leaf and 1/2 tsp of salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust. Increase heat to high and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove bay leaf and thyme and season with salt and pepper if necessary.

If you're lucky enough to have oven proof bowls, you can put the soup in bowls and broil the cheese right on the bread in the bowl. I'm not that lucky, so placed the bread in broiler and toasted it, then added the cheese for 30 seconds or so.

Serve the soup topped with the toasty, cheesy bread and enjoy.