French Onion Soup April 27, 2008

This recipe comes from a card that came along with my lovely Dutch Oven! Thank you Martha Stewart!

Laurita apparently loves onion soup and boy so do I. I remember having this soup for lunch in a little touristy restaurant in Paris in the 1st or 2nd near the Louvre, but I don’t remember it being that great, so I have tended to steer away from onion heavy dishes.

But I thought it was time to give this recipe a try and bring some new flavor contrasts to my palette! (…and yes I thought it would also be delightful fun to try and burn some bread in the oven!)

Ingredients:

3 pounds onions, cut in half and sliced into .25″ piece
5 tbsp butter
1.75 qts beef broth
1/2 cup madeira wine
1/2 cup white wine
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp flour
S&P
Baguette
Surchoix Gruyere cheese

Directions:
1) Melt butter in dutch oven pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and sprinkle with sugar. Cook onions, stirring occasionally (to prevent sticking) until very soft and translucent, ~15 minutes.
2) Reduce heat to medium; continue to cook onions, stirring frequently to prevent sticking, until caramelized and deep brown, ~30 minutes.
3) Sprinkle flour over onions, stir. Stir in stock, wine and madeira, bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce to heat to low and simmer until heated through, ~25 minutes. Add S&P to taste.
4) Preheat broiler, rip off some portions of baguette and place in oven safe serving bowl.
5) Spoon soup into bowl and place a little more bread on the surface, place slices of the cheese into the soup and onto the floating bread. Broil for 2 minutes (NOT 6, like I did while I was distracted and making our lunch for tomorrow) until the cheese is melted and browned around the edges.