French onion soup
Onions cooked slowly in butter until deep brown, simmered with wine and beef stock, then topped with toasted bread and bubbling Gruyère.
Method
- 1
Melt the butter with the oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat until the butter foams.
- 2
Add the onions and salt, stir to coat, then cover and cook until the onions have softened and collapsed.
- 3
Uncover, add the sugar and cook, stirring every few minutes and scraping the bottom, until the onions are soft, sticky and deep chestnut brown. Lower the heat if they start to catch.
- 4
Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant.
- 5
Sprinkle over the flour and stir until it disappears into the onions.
- 6
Pour in the wine and scrape up the brown layer on the bottom of the pot, then simmer until the wine has almost gone.
- 7
Add the stock, thyme and bay leaf, bring to a simmer and cook with the lid ajar.
- 8
While the soup simmers, lay the baguette slices on a baking tray and toast at 200°C until dry and lightly golden.
- 9
Remove the thyme stalks and bay leaf, then season the soup with salt and pepper.
- 10
Heat the grill to high. Set the ovenproof bowls on a baking tray and ladle in the hot soup.
- 11
Float two toasts on each bowl and pile the Gruyère over the top, covering the bread completely.
- 12
Grill until the cheese is melted, bubbling and browned in patches, then serve with a warning that the bowls are hot.
Notes
- The browning cannot be hurried. High heat scorches the onions and makes the soup bitter, so keep it at medium or below and give it the full time.
- Comté or Emmental can stand in for Gruyère.
- The soup without the bread and cheese keeps for 3 days in the fridge and tastes even better reheated.
Equipment
Large heavy pot, Baking tray, 4 ovenproof soup bowls, Ladle