The Weekly Soup – French Onion Soup

This is the classic of all classics. It is commonly served late at night in France. It’s the last hand of frienship and hospitality you extend to people before they go home. You serve it around midnight at a wedding or new years eve. It warms you up before you must make your short or long way home. It’s a French way to say we love you. Because we say it best with food. 

Ingredients:

1kg of onions, 5 large garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 heaped tablespoon of flour, 1.3 lt of very strong beef stock (a bit less than a full kettle), 1/3 of a bottle of dry white wine, bread and a bit of grated cheese, a tablespoon of oil and a heaped spoonful of butter. Please note: you need the beef stock to be very strong so for this I used 4 knorr beef stock pots. Optional fresh thyme.

Method:

Peel and slice your onions very finely. This is key so take the time to get them as thin as you can. Melt your butter in your oil. You need to use a wide pot with a fairly heavy base. Once the butter is melted add your onions. Cover the pot and let the onions cook down and soften on low heat. Stir them up every 3 minutes or so. At the end add your sugar and your garlic which you will have grated. Let it cook down two more minutes but keep stirring as you don’t want the onions to brown. Add your flour and coat the mixture with it. Pour your stock and wine over the onions, place the lid back on and let it simmer for a good 20/ 30 min. 

For the cheesy croutons, grill your bread on both sides (baguette is the classic) and place some grated cheese on one of the sides and place under the grill until the cheese is golden and place them floating on the soup. 

Voila!