French Onion Soup

After rescuing some cheese from the Gagarins' fridge (they lost power, and were leaving for Turkey, so I took away some perishable stuff), we have lots of cheese. It's pretty yummy stuff, one block is aged and one is smoked, both sort of semi-soft cheddar-like cheeses, not sure what they actually are. Anyway, we decided that French onion soup would be a good way to use the cheese, so embarked on that endeavor. It wasn't too hard, actually, but most recipes call for much more cooking time than we used. Hey, we were hungry. We did let the onions fully caramelize, but didn't both cooking the broth that much longer. End result was quite delicious, although anything with toasty bread and melted cheese is going to be good, in my book.

French Onion Soup
Made enough for two people

4 onions
olive oil
kosher salt
~2C chicken stock
~2tbs balsamic vinegar
1/4C apple cider (optional)
several sprigs of thyme
1 bay leaf

~2C croutons
~1.5C grated cheese. Swiss or gruyere or emmental are probably best.

First step: caramelize the onions. Basically just cook them until they turn golden brown. We cut them in half, and then into slices, so they made long pieces of onion, and then cooked them in a dutch oven with some olive oil and a pinch of salt until they were delicious and brown and soft. Keep the heat relatively low; you don't want to burn them, just cook them. Stir occasionally. Add oil or butter as necessary, although we were fine this time.

Meanwhile, turn some old bread into croutons. Cut into pieces and bake for 10-15min, until it's pretty hard. If they're soft, they'll just turn to goo when added to the soup.

Once the onions are caramelized, add the chicken stock and the vinegar and the thyme and bay leaf. If we'd had any white wine, we would have added that, too. We let that cook for another 10 minutes or so, and then called it done.

Season the soup to taste for salt and pepper. Then pour it into soup bowls that are oven safe. Something with straight sides and a narrow mouth would be best, but we just used regular bowls. Top the soup with croutons, and then the cheese. Put the bowls on a baking sheet (to catch drips), and broil until the cheese has melted and is starting to brown a bit.

It's done! eat.





Headless Ed eating onion soup.