It sounds awful. Trust me, it’s not. It’s utterly satisfying and encapsulates all of the magic of rustic France. It ain’t pretty, but by God does it hit the spot. Again, there are lots of variations of this, but this is how we do it in our house. Nyum. This is definitely one for the Saturday / Sunday as it involves slower-than-slow cooking. Worth. Every. Minute.
You’ll need a heavy-bottomed pot or casserole dish for this or else the onions will stick and burn. And then you’ll need to chop some more. Your eyes won’t want that so much.
- 1.2kg (2.5lbs) onions, peeled & chopped (or bought pre-diced) + 3 cloves crushed garlic
- 3 tbsp butter + 1tbsp olive oil +1 tbsp flour + 1 tsp sugar + thyme + salt & pepper
- 4 cups boiling beef stock + 1 cup white wine
- 1 French baguette + 1 cup grated cheese
1. Heat butter & olive oil in pot until melted (not sizzling!), add onions, stir well and cover with lid. Cook at medium heat for two hours, turning onions twice (1pm)
2. After two hours, open lid, add sugar, stir, and cook for further hour. Stir occasionally and check for golden colour. Not black. (2pm)
3. After an hour, open, sprinkle in flour,stir well, add brandy, then slowly the white wine. Next add the boiling stock, thyme and salt & pepper. Cook for another hour. (3pm)
4. Chop French baguette vertically into small pieces, grill on both sides, add garlic butter or a touch of mustard (personal choice really), and set aside. (3:45pm)
5. Turn off pot of soup, blend roughly if preferred (it’s not intended to be a smooth soup), ladle into deep bowls, arrange bread ‘croûtes’ on the soup and sprinkle cheese on top. (4pm)
6. Place under medium heat grill under cheese turns lovely bubbly brown. (4:15pm) Bon appétit!
Cheats:
Cheese: The recipe calls for gruyere, but that can be quite expensive here, so cheddar often does the trick just the same.
Onions: A great tip for this dish is to buy the onions pre-chopped. It saves lots of hassle, crying eyes, and pretty much costs the same. Tesco have chopped onions pre-bagged for approx 69c in the fresh veg section, you’ll only need about five/six bags for this dish. They also do big bags of frozen chopped onions, but I haven’t tried this as I’m hanging on to my last shreds of food snobbery for now.
Booze: if you have brandy handy, pop a glug of that in too right before the wine. Adds a bit of depth, but isn’t so necessary you need to pop to Centra for Hennessey.
Veggie: If vegetarian, vegetable stock will do nicely!