French Onion Soup

I taste this soup (rather sneaked a couple of spoonfuls from Mr. Mack’s bowl) in Cornwall last October and fell in love with the flavours. Per usual I googled the recipe and found traditionally it is made with strong beef stock, but in my version I have used chicken stock and it tastes just right. The process of making this soup from scratch is a little involved (took me an hour and fifteen minutes to make) but it is worth it! The recipe I have listed below will make two bowls of soup (see pic- about 3/4th full-I ran out of onions) but its quite rich so that much is quite enough!

Ingredients:

• 3 large Onions (sliced thinly – I used the M&S brown onions that retail in 1 kg bags).
• 2 cloves of Garlic (minced)
• 2 pinches of dried Thyme
• 1/2 tsp Sugar
• 1 tbsp of Plain Flour
• 1/2 cup Sherry
• 1 Chicken stock cube (dissolved it in 450 mls of boiling water)
• 100 mls of Hot Water
• Bread slices (I had White Boule bread, traditionally its served with Baguette slices)
• Gruyere cheese (grated)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp of Olive Oil

Method:

Heat the olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan and add the finely sliced onions, cover and cook for 10 mins.

Then take the lid off, sprinkle the sugar (this helps with the caramelisation) and continue cooking stirring constantly. I cooked it on low-medium flame for about 40 minutes. Then cooked on medium flame for about 10 minutes at which point the onions starting caramelising nicely. Take care not to burn the onions, if you feel they are browning too fast reduce the flame.

Once the onions caramelise add the garlic and let if cook for a couple of minutes and add the flour and mix well.

Add the sherry, this will help lift the glaze stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Keep stirring through out, add the thyme and chicken stock and mix well.

Test the seasoning and add salt and pepper, continue to stir.

Next add 100 mls of hot water, mix well, cover and simmer for 15- 20 minutes.

While the soup is simmering, apply olive oil to both sides of the bread and toast it in oven. Once one side is toasted, turn over and pile grated Gruyere cheese on the other side and toast in oven till the cheese melts.

Serve the soup into bowls, top with cheesy toast and serve. The soup will be gone in no time (we polished our bowls off in less than 10 minutes).