French onion soup

You might have come across the San Remo brand (this is not an endorsement but merely a reference) which carries a lot of pasta shapes and sizes in the market. Years ago, there was San Remo French onion soup packets too. And I loved adding the contents of those packets to my nilagang baka and that really elevated the boiled beef and vegetables experience to new heights. Sadly, San Remo French onion soup packets are no longer available. I’ve often wondered if I could replicate it from scratch, tried and failed until, a couple of days ago, I came across a recipe from Frantic Home Cook. To cut a long story short, it proved to be the French onion recipe that I have been looking for.

What makes an onion soup French? I used to think it’s the reddish hue which I thought came from using red onions. Wrong. A better guess is that it’s all about the reduction of liquids, a very French cooking technique, to come up with full-bodied concentrated flavors. It took something like two and half hours and a lot of stirring — and gas — to make this soup but the result is really worth it. I don’t know how good it’ll be if you prepare a really huge pot of soup and freeze it in portions so that you can enjoy fab French onion soup without going through the whole procedure each and every time. Maybe, I’ll try that next time.

You can check out Francie’s recipe if you want to make a reference between that and this one because I did change a few ingredients. You know, I had to use what I had in the kitchen.

Ingredients :

6 large yellow/white onions, about 600 grams, peeled and thinly sliced
3 tbsps. of butter
1/2 c. of sweet white wine
8 to 10 c. of chicken or beef broth (home made, preferably)
salt
freshly ground pepper
a sprig of fresh tarragon (or about 1 tsp. of dried tarragon)
1 loaf of French bread
grated cheese (I used a combination of mild cheddar and mozzarella), as much as you like
toasted onion bits, for garnish (optional)

You’ll need a cooking pot that can go into the oven.

On the stove top, melt the butter in a Dutch oven. Add the sliced onions.

To make sure that no steam escapes from the pot (you need the steam to soften the onions and keep them from getting dry), cover with a foil, tucking the edges, before putting on the lid. Cook in a 325^oF oven for two hours. The onions will still be lightly browned be very, very soft at this stage.

Transfer the pot to the stove top and continue cooking the onions over medium heat, with constant stirring, until they brown some more. The onions will start caramelizing — that’s fine — so long as you don’t burn them so watch it carefully at this stage. When the onions are browning and caramelizing nicely, pour in the wine. Scrape the bottom of the pot to make sure that you get all the browned bits mixed into the liquid. Cook, uncovered, until most of the liquid has evaporated. You want the body and flavor from the wine, not the alcohol, so let the alcohol dissipate.

Pour in the broth. Add the tarragon. Season with salt and pepper. bring to the boil, cover and simmer (on the stove top) for 20 to 30 minutes.

Place oven proof bowls on a baking tray (the tray will make it easier to take the bowls out of the oven). Ladle the soup into the bowls.

Cover the top of the soup with slices of bread.

Smother the bread with grated cheese. Put the baking tray in a very hot preheated oven (the highest setting your oven can go) and bake until the cheese melts.

Sprinkle with toasted onion bits (or snipped parsley, if you prefer) and serve at once.

ADDENDUM @ 5.18 p.m.

My kids did not like the soft bread. Next time, I will grill them before adding to the soup.