French Onion Soup

We’ve been having some real winter weather, gusty, cold and rainy and I was in the mood for a proper bowl of soup. When I was about 17 or so, I was in Israel on a 3 month trip for studies and was based in Tel Aviv. Some friends said, let’s go to Jerusalem, there’s this great place they serve onion soup, whaddaya say? Of course, I was game and off we went. The place was called Cafe’ Atara, which was truly famous for their onion soup and to me became the epitome of the soup to copy. It was deep and dark with caramelized onions, had a heady aroma, was generous with the cheese and they gave you 2 toasted buns to go with. So of course, I have tried to copy their soup and I’m happy to say this recipe, quite simple and classic (a combo of various versions I tested and put together) is the winner. One thing I don’t do is make you put your soup bowls in the oven and brown with cheese. Many people don’t have soup crocks that will go in the oven (I gave mine away years ago) and my method works just as well.

To me, this onion soup is a whole meal and is a stick to your ribs meal in my opinion. The ingredients are simple but -a caveat. You cannot cheat with the caramelization of the onions. If you’re not gonna do it till they are deep, glorious brown, just skip it and make something else. Really. It’s the whole basis of the soup. To my horror, I’ve been served onion soup which was pallid in color in some semi decent restaurants, where they barely sauteed the onions. Why, I ask? why bother??? So now that we’ve established the need, let’s get to work! Trust me, you’ll love this soup so much that you’ll never think of under browning the onions again. So gather your ingredients

Now I show two kinds of cheese but in the end, decided to go with the Emek yellow cheese, which is a type of Edam cheese but you can use a good melting cheese. I wouldn’t use cheddar and although some people use Swiss, I don’t like the combo but I digress. A not too sharp melting cheese works best. K. Peel your onions and garlic and cut the onions in half and then slice into thin half moons like so:

Don’t chop and don’t leave too large. Good. Now leave the chopped garlic aside for later. Take a nice sized pot and melt the butter together with the oil.

Now take the whole lot of sliced onion and tip into the pot.

Just wanted to give you an idea of how much the sliced onions come to. K, onward.

Now starts the work. Take a spoon and stir well first to coat the onions with the butter and oil. Then cook on medium high heat, not too low, this requires you standing over your onions. C’est la vie (hey, French, right?) but you simply have to. No wandering off. So stir, stir, stir, turn and turn under and over and they will start to brown. The reason you must keep stirring, is otherwise you will blacken parts of the onion and undercook other parts. Caramelization means uniformity of the browning to get that amazing flavor.

and now it’s really getting its browning on in this pic

keep going till really brown and when brown, add your chopped garlic and stir it in just lightly cooking it (or it gets bitter) and add your flour to the onions, and it should quickly brown.

Now have your vegetable stock and wine and water at the ready and add one after the other.

A note here. While you can use bought vegetable stock, I make my own Yehuda’s Not Chicken Soup and add a tad more soy sauce to make it more like a mock beef broth. Since I know my broth is salty enough, has bay leaves in it and a nice umami flavor, I don’t add much salt to the final soup but ya gotta taste it to know. If you use commercial stock, that’s fine but taste for saltiness. Another note. NO you cannot use soup powder for this. I’m not usually a snob about these things but here I must put my foot down. The whole soup is the onions and the stock so ya gotta use good stuff or it will not come out worthy of the name. Just sayin’. K.

Now you’ve added all the liquids, stir it well and let it cook with a tilted lid on it for about 30 minutes on a low flame, burbling gently.

Note the deep brown rich color of the soup? That’s what you want. While it’s cooking away merrily, take your bread or rolls cut in half and toast in your oven or toaster oven till browned like so:

Once toasted, take out and cover with little piles of grated cheese thusly

and toast till melted. Try to time this to coincide with the soup being ready to go.

Now take deep soup bowls, fill generously with the onion soup and float your cheese toasts on top of each bowl. Of course you understand you should submerge the toasts in the soup and cut into it to have a bite of toast with a mouthful of soup. Oh! don’t forget to pass around extra grated cheese in a bowl to make sure everyone gets their cheesy fix. A perfect winter soup.

French Onion Soup

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons oil

6½ cups (around 1.3 kilos or 6 medium large) peeled onions

1 tablespoon peeled, chopped garlic

3 tablespoons flour

4 cups vegetable stock Yehuda’s Not Chicken Soup or commercial but DO NOT use soup powder

½ cup wine, red or white

2 cups water

1- 2 teaspoons salt, depends on the saltiness of your vegetable stock

6 thick slices bread, OR 3 rolls, cut in half

1 cup grated cheese which melts well with extra cheese to be passed around in a bowl

Directions:

Cut the peeled onions in half and then slice them into thin half moon shape. Melt the butter in a dutch oven or deep pot with the oil. Place all the onions into the pot. Stir the onions into the butter and oil to coat and then, on medium high heat, brown and caramelize the onions, stirring frequently and scraping from the bottom, do not walk away!! and keep this up till the onions cook down somewhat and turn a deep brown. Add the garlic and stir quickly, do not allow to get too dark or they get bitter.. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and cook several minutes longer until flour is absorbed and brown.

Add the stock, wine, water, and bring to a boil and then lower heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes with a tilted lid on it. While the soup is cooking, take the bread or halved rolls and in a toaster oven or oven, toast the bread till brown. Take out the bread and place a heap of grated cheese on the bread. Return to the toaster and heat till cheese melts. Time this to be ready when the soup is ready.

Take deep soup bowls and ladle soup into them and float a piece of cheese toast on top of the soup.