Many years ago, I used a recipe for French Onion Soup that cooked the onions in the oven for hours and it made a delicious soup. When we wanted the soup again recently, I couldn’t find the recipe (I must have made it pre-blog) so I used another one and it wasn’t very good. After a warm spell, a cold front came through and it was once again soup weather, so I went on line searching in earnest for the recipe and I found it. The recipe is titled “French Onion Soup: The Cook’s Illustrated Way” and it is shown below. I followed the soup recipe as written but deviated for the crouton.
French Onion Soup: The Cook’s Illustrated Way
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces
6 large yellow onions (I used white onions and cut into 1/8” slices)
Salt to taste
2 cups water, plus extra for deglazing
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
4 cups low sodium chicken broth (I used our homemade)
2 cups beef broth
1⁄4 cup dry red wine
6 sprigs fresh thyme (I used 1½ t. dried)
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs fresh parsley leaves
ground black pepper
1 baguette, cut into 1/2-inch slices (homemade bread for me)
Swiss cheese, sliced 1/8 inch thick (baby Swiss for me)
1½ ounces grated asiago cheese (we used Parmesan)
Directions:
For the soup:
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to
400°. Generously spray inside of heavy-bottomed large (at least 7-quart) Dutch
oven with nonstick cooking spray. (Larry used the big Le Creuset)
2. Place butter in pot and add onions and 1 teaspoon salt.
3. Cook, covered, 1 hour (onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume).
4. Remove pot from oven and stir onions, scraping bottom and
sides of pot. Return pot to oven with lid slightly ajar and continue to cook
until onions are very soft and golden brown, 2 hours longer, stirring onions
and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour (I stirred every 30 minutes
and ran the onions around the sides to get all of the fond).
5. Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high
heat.
6. Cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and
sides of pot, until liquid evaporates and onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes,
reducing heat to medium if onions are browning too quickly.
7. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until pot bottom is
coated with dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary. (Scrape
any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.)
9. Repeat process of deglazing 2 or 3 more times,
until onions are very dark brown (I used my flat bladed fish spatula for all of
the stirring and fond removal to this point).
10. Stir in wine and balsamic vinegar, stirring frequently,
until wine evaporates, about 5 minutes.
11. Stir in broths, 2 cups water, the thyme, bay leaf and
parsley (tied with twine or wrapped in cheese cloth for easy removal from pot)
and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom
and sides of pot.
I forgot this pic
12. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer.
13. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 30 minutes. Remove
and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper to taste.
14. While soup simmers, cut slices of (homemade) bread into
circles that fit the bowl tops.
15. Toast the bread slices.
16. Add Swiss cheese slices and grated parmesan (or Asiago ) to
the top of the toasted bread and broil until the cheese it melted.
17. Ladle soup into the bowls, add the crouton and serve.
The Verdict:
The consensus from the diners was “best French onion soup I
ever had” and I agree. The cooking
process took four hours but it was well worth it (the first three hours were
oven time). If you really like French
onion soup, this is the recipe for you.
The recipe made eight servings.
While not low-carb, without the cheesy crouton on top, it
is low-cal and it was perfect for a cold day watching the super bowl.
As for the game, like most of the playoffs, it was close & exciting to watch but I wish the
underdog Bengals would have won for their first time.
Photos can be enlarged by
clicking on them and the blue words are links.
Have a
great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.
Larry
02/13/22
event date
Oh that looks just like restaurant quality but better!
ReplyDeleteLarry, Four hours to make this soup... Laurie would kill for a great bowl of onion soup and she orders it whenever we're out and about and she spots it on a menu. Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
ReplyDeleteI love their version of a lot of recipes! This French onion soup looks comforting and perfectly delicious. Yum!
ReplyDeleteFrench Onion Soup is Ms. Goofy's favorite. I will show her this recipe.
ReplyDelete