Alrighty Fans and Haters, here is a recipe for my favorite French Onion Soup…this stuff rocks. One major thing that makes French Onion Soup the best, is the Stock, if you have time to make the veal stock from scratch it will make all the difference, if not, just get a really good meat stock. This is a slight variatoin of T-Flo’s Recipe…but better.
Ingredients
- 1 stick cup unsalted butter
- 4 onions, sliced (one Sweet, One Red, and two Yellow)
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 fresh thyme sprigs
- pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup good Malbec, about 1/2 bottle
- 2 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 quarts homemade veal stock or good beef broth
- 1 baguette, sliced
- 1/2 pound grated Gruyere
Directions
Melt the stick of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, pepper flakes and salt and pepper and cook until the onions are very soft and caramelized, about 25 minutes. Add the wine, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the wine has evaporated and the onions are dry, about 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs. Dust the onions with the flour and give them a stir. Turn the heat down to medium low so the flour doesn’t burn, and cook for 10 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste. Now add the beef broth, bring the soup back to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.
When you’re ready to eat, preheat the broiler. Arrange the baguette slices on top of soup bowls sprinkle the slices with the Gruyere and broil the whole bowl until bubbly and golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. this gets some melted cheese into the soup, fantastic.
Ladle the soup in bowls and float several of the Gruyere croutons on top.
Alternative method: Ladle the soup into bowls, top each with 2 slices of bread and top with cheese. Put the bowls into the oven to toast the bread and melt the cheese.
Serve with the Malbec used in the soup!
