French Onion Soup

Tuesdays with Dorie has a kind of sister group called French Fridays with Dorie.  After seeing all of their beautiful photos of French onion soup, I had been thinking I NEEDED some. 

Unfortunately, I don't have the book they use for their group (yet) so I couldn't make the exact recipe, but I figured the next best thing would be a recipe from Mastering the art of French Cooking.  Even though I've had the book forever, I honestly don't remember ever having made anything from it; it kind of scares me.  In a cookbook, I am usually comforted and encourgaed by photos where this book contains none.  I figured I could attempt something as simple as soup without too many photos and I really wanted some delicious soup!  It was pretty easy and straight forward (and in English, with easy ingredients to find), it just required time (mainly to caramelize onions which could be done the day before if needed).  And it was delicious. 

I made this soon after the lasagna and have just gotten around to posting about it.  I had some left over french bread and garlic butter that worked perfectly.  

This recipe was great and made me think I need to get over my fear about this cookbook and try a lot more of these recipes.   But look at this book, aren't you scared?  At all?  I mean, it's so old the pages have started to yellow.  Maybe I just feeling guilty for stealing from my mom all those years ago.

French Onion Soup {or as Julia calls it:  Soupe A L'oignon}

Slightly adapted from: Mastering the art of French Cooking  

5 large yellow onions, (5 cups) thinly sliced

3 T butter

1 T olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp sugar

3 T flour

2 quarts water plus 8 tsp beef bullion (what I used) or beef broth, boiling

1/4 cup white cooking wine

salt/pepper to taste

 French Bread

garlic butter

swiss cheese (about 3-4 ounces)

get ready to cry, or at least I cried.  That's a lot of onion chopping.

In a heavy bottomed, 4 quart covered saucepan, 

cook the onions slowly with butter and oil for about 15 minutes.  

Remove cover and raise heat to medium, stir in the salt and 1/4 tsp sugar.  

Cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring frequently until onions have turned an even, deep, golden brown.  (It's crazy to me how all those onions shrink to this amount.  I swear I didn't eat that many of them!)

Sprinkle in the flour and stir for 3 minutes.  

Remove from heat and blend in the boiling liquid (broth).  Add wine and season to taste with remaining sugar and salt and pepper.  

Simmer partially covered for 30-40 minutes.  Taste and add seasonings necessary.  Set aside until ready to serve and then heat to a simmer or continue while hot.  

Spread garlic butter on both sides of bread and place on baking sheet.  

Bake at 425 until deep golden brown on both sides.  

Ladle soup into oven proof bowls.  Add bread and slices of swiss cheese.  

Place bowl on baking sheet and return to oven until cheese is melted and bubbly.  You can also use your broiler and it will be faster just make sure your bowls are broiler safe.  Serves 6-8

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 On a side note, Tyler and I are celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary today!  I am hoping the 13th year is a lucky one and not unlucky.  Or have we survived the 13th year already and this is considered the start of the 14th year?  Either way, I am happy to still be married to my favorite guy ever.

The day it all began. :)

 

If we look young and stupid, it's only because we were.