I've never had French onion soup. Ever. I don't know what it is suppose to taste like. Hopefully, Marc will love this new version of a classic!
First, I thinly sliced five medium to large yellow onions. It's important to make the first cut from root to stem. I make my slices in that same direction. Julia Child actually goes the other direction. Either is fine.
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| Onions cut in half through the stem and root. |
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| Sliced onion. |
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| Four of the six and a half cups of sliced yellow onion! |
Next, I melted two tablespoons of butter with one tablespoon of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot
(I used my Dutch oven) over medium heat.
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| Oil and Butter |
I added all of the onions and stirred to coat. I turned the heat down to medium-low
so that they could sweat, and added the top.
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| Dutch oven covered with onions sweating. |
After 20 minutes, I removed the top from the Dutch oven.
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| Onions sweated and ready for caramelization. |
The onions reduced by half, losing a lot of their moisture. I added a half of a teaspoon of sugar to aid in the caramelization of the onions and a teaspoon of salt. I increased the temperature to medium-high and stirred the onions every two to three minutes, being careful not to burn the onions.
We want them brown and caramelized with lots of flavor - not burnt! Be careful not to leave these!
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| After about 15 minutes of caramelizing. |
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| After about a half hour of caramelizing. |
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| After about 45 minutes of caramelizing. |
Once they are caramelized, I reduced the heat to medium-low. I added three tablespoons of multi-purpose flour (I used King Arthur's) and about two more tablespoons of butter.
I stirred the flour mixture two to three minutes, making a paste.
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| Flour mixed with the onions. You can tell how much the onions reduced! They filled over half the pot to begin with and now they are only about a third of the bottom! |
This is where I truly depart from Julia's original recipe. She adds warmed beef stock first. I have never been able to deglaze a pan with stock of any kind. So I switch the wine and stock steps!
I added one cup of red wine (I used Childress's Cabernet Sauvignon) to deglaze the pot bottom.
Next, I scraped all of the blackened bits from the bottom!
I actually whisked the mixture to make sure that the flour was combined well!
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| After the red wine was whisked into the onions! |
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| You can see that the red wine is thickened quickly with the flour in the onions. |
After deglazing the pot, I combined the beef stock (I used a combination of Pacific Beef Broth and Kitchen Basics Beef Stock, but using homemade stock would be best) with the red wine-onion mixture.
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| Stock whisked into mixture. |
I made a bouquet garni of fresh parsley, fresh thyme, and fresh bay leaf. This is a difference from the original recipe also. I don't like sage, which is called for in her recipe, along with bay leaf. Alton Brown's recipe calls for parsley, thyme and bay leaf, so I chose to use that flavor profile.
I added the bouquet garni to the stock.
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| Fresh parsley, thyme, and bay leaf! |
After bringing the mixture to a boil, I reduced it to a simmer. I simmered it, uncovered, for half an hour. I tasted it and added a pinch of salt. Julia's recipe calls for adding some of the Swiss cheese to the pot. Instead, I added the rind of the Gruyere (a Swiss cheese with a little more bite than our normal Swiss with holes) and a rind I had from some Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Because I wasn't ready to do the rest of the meal, I covered the pot and left it over low heat for about an hour. I didn't really follow the rest of Julia's recipe at this point. I can't have cognac, which the original recipe calls for, and
I wanted to do everything in individual crocks and freeze any of the remainder of the soup.
The original recipe calls for a crusty French bread. I didn't have a lot of options because of the limited breads that you can use on a gluten-free diet! Against the Grain Gourmet makes amazing gluten-free artisan breads. They make a baguette that can be purchased at EarthFare in the frozen foods section. It's actually pretty crusty, the key to making a good crouton according to Julia Child!
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| Against the Grain Baguettes |
I preheated my oven to 325 degrees F and sliced the baguette at an angle. I lined my cookie sheet with aluminum foil and placed my cut baguette slices (about 3/4" to an inch thick) on it. I drizzled the tops of the baguette slices with extra virgin olive oil, then flipped them to do the same thing to the other side. Unlike her recipe, I did add a pinch of salt to each. I baked them on each side for 15 minutes, totaling 30 minutes in the oven. They were nicely browned and crunchy, like any good crouton should be!
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| Toasting the baguettes with extra virgin olive oil. |
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| Toasted to a golden brown on both sides! |
Once I was almost ready to serve the soup, I turned the broiler on "lo." I moved my oven grate so that it was about eight inches from the heat source. I added the soup to two medium crocks (I think they are Corningware), grated a small amount of Gruyere into the soup, placed a crouton (or two, depending on how big your croutons are and how big the crocks you are serving it in are) on top, and grated a lot of Gruyere and some Parmagiano-Reggiano cheeses over the top of the croutons, making sure that the edges of the toast are completely covered.
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| Guyere added to the top of the crouton - it could have used more! |
I broiled each of the crocks for about one minute. This can vary depending on your broiler. You just want the cheese to be bubbly and browning. It may take 45 seconds or 90 seconds, so keep your eye on it!
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| Crocks under the broiler. |
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| Most of the cheese fell into the soup! I will definitely use more cheese next time! |
After serving, I was interested to see Marc's reaction. I thought it was very good, but I'd never had French onion soup! I wanted to know if it was as good as he remembered it! He liked it. He said it was very rich, richer than a lot of restaurants make it, but it was really good!
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