food_porn: French Onion Soup

M (

congruency) wrote in

food_porn,
@ 2007-10-28 20:49:00

Entry tags:

onion, soup

French Onion Soup

INGREDIENTS
* 4 tablespoons butter
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 large red onions, thinly sliced
* 2 large sweet onions, thinly sliced
* 1 (48 fluid ounce) can chicken broth
* 1 (14 ounce) can beef broth
* 1/2 cup red wine
* 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
* 2 sprigs fresh parsley
* 1 sprig fresh thyme leaves
* 1 bay leaf
* 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
* salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
* 4 thick slices French or Italian bread
* 8 slices Gruyere or Swiss cheese slices, room temperature
* 1/2 cup shredded Asiago or mozzarella cheese, room temperature
* 4 pinches paprika

1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Stir in salt, red onions and sweet onions. Cook 35 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are caramelized and almost syrupy.
2. Mix chicken broth, beef broth, red wine and Worcestershire sauce into pot. Bundle the parsley, thyme, and bay leaf with twine and place in pot. Simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove and discard the herbs. Reduce the heat to low, mix in vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Cover and keep over low heat to stay hot while you prepare the bread.
3. Preheat oven broiler. Arrange bread slices on a baking sheet and broil 3 minutes, turning once, until well toasted on both sides. Remove from heat; do not turn off broiler.
4. Arrange 4 large oven safe bowls or crocks on a rimmed baking sheet. Fill each bowl 2/3 full with hot soup. Top each bowl with 1 slice toasted bread, 2 slice Gruyere cheese and 1/4 of the Asiago or mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle a little bit of paprika over the top of each one.
5. Broil 5 minutes, or until bubbly and golden brown. As it softens, the cheese will cascade over the sides of the crock and form a beautifully melted crusty seal. Serve immediately!

Does anyone have any recipes with fewer ingredients that are JUST AS YUMMY?! I'm talking the best French Onion Soup they've ever had. I don't make this with beef broth though, I just double the chicken.

(Post a new comment)

krasota
2007-10-29 12:55 am UTC (link)

The best onion soup I ever had was very simple:
olive oil, five pounds of onions (red, I think), red wine (two bottles?)

Soften onions, then cover with wine and cook forever. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

In retrospect, we strongly suspect he snuck in beef broth. He was feeding vegetarians (me, my roomie) and could be evil like that.

Toast thick slices of a baguette. Place crostini in bowl, grate asiago or parmesano generously over. Ladle soup into bowls, enjoy!

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	congruency 2007-10-29 01:01 am UTC (link)
	Mmmm that sounds delish! I'll use chicken broth and maybe white wine, or vegetable broth and red wine, perhaps. I don't eat beef, pork or lamb so I avoid those broths as well. Molto Grazie! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sandramort 2007-10-29 01:03 am UTC (link)
	Ahhh, this is very similar to the recipe my native French friend told me was authentic, she insisted there's no beef broth in it. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sandramort 2007-10-29 01:02 am UTC (link)
	I have a native French friend tell me VERY indignantly that there is neither beef nor chicken broth in french onion soup. You cook down the onions and make an onion broth with them, it has very few ingredients. I'm too tired to look for the recipe right now but I'll try tomorrow... (Reply to this)

duckumu
2007-10-29 01:10 am UTC (link)

i make it a little differently every time i do it, but generally it's:

a few tablespoons butter (ONLY butter)

a pound of sliced onions -- takes me almost an hour to cook them down

1 bay leaf (i brown it with the onions)

deglaze with 1/4 cup brandy + 1/4 cup sherry, reduce to basically nothing

cup of dry wine (red if you're using beef stock, white if using chicken stock), then reduce (a little, not necessarily to a syrup)

4 cups of stock

then just simmer for about a half hour to let the flavors get together.

i find this gives me a really rich, boozey soup, just the way i like it. i recommend against using any oil in this soup -- since it's not a very chunky soup, that oil will just sit on top and you WILL notice it. i would go with just butter, which gives more flavor anyway.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	congruency 2007-10-29 01:11 am UTC (link)
	that sounds great too. thanks! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	congruency 2007-10-29 01:17 am UTC (link)
	by the way, how funny that you went to high school in syracuse--i went to high school in rochester and i see you live in astoria. i live in brooklyn. so, i guess, hello neighbor. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sandramort 2007-10-29 02:21 am UTC (link)
	This thread gets more and more confusing by the minute... I thought you were talkign to me! I live in Astoria also! LOL! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	congruency 2007-10-29 10:58 am UTC (link)
	haha how funny! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	duckumu 2007-10-29 02:37 pm UTC (link)
	haha, cool! twinzies~* (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	congruency 2007-10-29 02:49 pm UTC (link)
	awesome movie. (Reply to this)(Parent)

kepharel
2007-10-29 04:56 pm UTC (link)

my french onion soup recipe is dear to me. it's the first recipe i feel i've truly perfected, where i haven't tasted any that's better than mine. i worked very hard on it! so i hope you enjoy it. i'm still working out how to do the bread, though, so it isn't as soggy. i think toasting the cubes in a dry skillet might be the way to go. also, these measurements are approximate, but fairly accurate. i'm not very scientific when i cook. for the beef stock, i usually use one carton of the kitchen basics brand beef stock because it tastes INCREDIBLE, plus one can of the store brand beef stock because it's cheap and still good. but you can use whatever works for you. :) this recipe serves about 4 people as an entree, with a little left over, depending on the size of crocks you use to serve it.

1 stick unsalted butter
2 T olive oil
1 big sweet onion, sliced thin
2 yellow or spanish onions, sliced thin
1 carton + 1 can beef stock
2 T dry sherry
1 1/2 t dried thyme
salt + ground pepper
French bread, cubed
4 oz provolone, grated
4 oz swiss, grated
1/4 c parmesan, grated

Melt butter and olive oil in stock pot over medium or medium-high heat. Add onions and salt; cook and caramelize. (It takes about 30-45 minutes for me, i start on medium until the onions are basically cooked through, then i crank up the heat a little to caramelize them.) Deglaze pan with sherry, add stock, thyme and pepper. Cover and simmer 30 minutes. Put in crocks, put bread on top, then provolone, then swiss, then parmesan. Broil till cheese is bubbly and browning a little. Enjoy!

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	provolone congruency 2007-10-29 05:48 pm UTC (link)
	my family is BIG in provolone, specifically the smoked kind (my mom uses it on pizza instead of tasteless mozzarella,) so I'm glad I read your recipe; I'll try it with provolone. Thanks! (Reply to this)(Parent)

upsilamba
2007-10-29 11:14 pm UTC (link)

The secret to good french onion soup is using fantastic stock. Make it yourself, and make sure it's sturdy and flavorful. Lamb is my favorite, but beef will work in a pinch.

2 Tbsp good butter
2 lbs thinly sliced onions
2 liters lamb (or beef) stock
1 cup red wine
1/2 cup sherry
Thyme, salt, and pepper to taste
Grated cheese (gruyere, or something else that melts smoothly)
Sliced French bread

Melt butter in a large pot. Sweat onions over low heat for ~30 minutes until they are soft and sweet. Add stock, wine, and sherry. Bring to the boil and season with salt, pepper, and thyme. Simmer for at least 30 minutes. In the meantime, toast the bread lightly. Ladle the soup into bowls, top with bread and cheese, and slip them under the broiler until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	congruency 2007-10-29 11:16 pm UTC (link)
	I don't eat beef or lamb, but thanks anyway. And interestingly enough, another user with a French friend informed me that authentic French Onion soup does not have any stock. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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