French Onion Soup and other muesings

This entry will be about soup. Walk away now, brave reader, if you cannot handle an entire blog about soup.

Last night I made one of my absolute favorite soups, french onion. (Joe said I should rename it to Rachel's Onion to avoid the French) I am so in love with this soup because it has so much going for it. Sweet carmalized onions, rich broth, crusty croutons, and lots of broiled cheese on top. Oh, its like love in my mouth. I cannot get enough of it. Last night I accidentally forgot the recipe and had to wing it. Which was good because it turned out effing amazing. So here it is in all its glory, the recipe for greatness.

French Onion Soup

5 large onions (I used yellow)
4-5 tabl butter
1/4 cup vermouth
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 cups stock (I used chicken, traditional is beef)
2-3 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
Sprinkle of thyme
1 good crusty bread loaf
Tons of shredded swiss cheese (what can I say, it's my recipe)

Slice onions in half, removing the two ends in the process. Remove the skins and cut into quarters. Slice thin. Add butter to a large saucepan and melt over a med heat. Toss in all the onions, cover, walk away. In about ten minutes, come back and stir. Cover and walk away. Repeat this till the bottom of the saucepan starts getting browned goodness and the onions begin to turn a light brown. Scrape up as much of the browned bits off the bottom of the pan as you can and cover and walk away for 5 minutes. Keep this up till all the onions are carmalized a deep caramal color.

Deglaze with the vermouth then the wine. Add in the garlic chopped into tiny peices, the broth, thyme, and the bay leaf. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile slice your crusty bread into thin slices. Turn a broiler on Low and roast those suckers for about 2-3 minutes, flip, and roast the other side. You are looking for toasted perfection on both sides. Once out of the oven rub all over witha sliced piece of garlic.

Spoon the finished soup into bowls, top with a piece of bread or two, cover in swiss and place under the broiler on hi for about a minute. Watch, it may burn. Turn off burner, remove, and enjoy. (caution, it will be extremely hot!)



There, that is my love. I've been making lots of soup lately. Been eyeing another large batch of gumbo coming up. MMMM