I’ve only made French Onion Soup once in my lifetime, a long time ago.  I don’t even remember if it was good.  Well, today that’s what we had for lunch, made from scratch no less.  It’s karma.  I was at the butchers on Wednesday to pick up bacon for our traditional weekend breakfast, when I spotted some beef leg bones.  Instantly, “Roasted Bone Marrow” popped into my head.  My boys and my man love bone marrow.  So, I picked some up and roasted them up for a tasty treat.  After the marrow was gone, I didn’t want to waste the bones so I threw them back into the oven along with some carrots, onions and celery stalks for another half hour.  Then tossed all the roasted goodies into my stock pot along with some peppercorn, bay leaves and coriander seeds.  Covered everything with water and let it simmer for five to six hours.  Beautiful pot of beef stock was made.

Why is this karma?  Well, on Tuesday, Soriana had white onions on special.  I bought a lot.  Can’t resist a good sale.   So I had a pantry full of onions, a giant pot of beef stock, freshly baked bread and cheese.  The path was predetermined and I must follow.  French Onion Soup it shall be!

French Onion Soup (makes 6 – 8 servings)

5 medium onions thinly sliced (food processor makes this job fast and easy)
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 tbsp cooking sherry
1/2 cup white wine
8 cups beef stock
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
salt and pepper to taste
french bread thinly sliced (about 1/4 inch thick) and toasted you’ll want 2 slices per bowl
cheese, lots and lots of grated cheese (about 3/4 cups per bowl) I used a combination of Gouda and Sharp Cheddar

  1. In a large dutch oven, heat butter and olive oil on medium high heat.  When most of the butter has melted, add in the onions.  Stir coat all the onion in the butter and oil.  Continue to cook the onion until you get a nice pale brown colouring.  You’re not trying to caramelize the onion, just to give them a slight tan.  This took me about 10 minutes
  2. Add in the garlic and thyme and stir to combine.  Add in the sherry and stir.  Add the white wine and let it simmer for a minute then throw in the eight cups of stock.  Stir and cover.  When the stock comes to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and continue to cook for another 20 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.
  3. Preheat your oven to 400°.  Arrange your oven safe soup bowls onto an aluminum foil lined tray.  Place a slice of toasted bread on the bottom.  Ladle onion and soup over the toast slowly.  Continue to fill the bowls with the onion soup until it reaches the top.  Place another slice of toast on top of the soup.  Do not press down.  Generously cover each bowl with the shredded cheese, making sure that the cheese covers the entire surface of the soup and toast with a little over hanging from the edge.
  4. Place tray of soup into the oven and broil for 15 – 20 minutes or until the cheese on top is nicely melted and browned.
  5. Serve your family with the warnings that the bowl is HOT and the cheese is HOT and soggy toast in the soup is HOT and the soup is HOT.  Because this soup must be eaten HOT!

Enjoy!!!

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