More soup - French Onion!

All that talk this morning about a good old fashioned French Onion Soup got my tastebuds tingling. The few ingredients necessary are staples in most cooks' kitchens. Well, I may not always have beef broth on hand, but this time I did. Even had a little white wine left over and there is always a cognac on the 'butler's tray' somewhere between my liquor collection.

Let me brag and say it was soooo good! Even my normally non-plused husband raved that it was even better than from the French owned restaurant at the local port we were at recently. It could be that they save on the cognac...they definately did use white wine though. Me, I 'do' both. That is how I was introduced to a 'real' French Onion Soup and learned it in Belgium.

What I don't like about some restaurant's versions is when the bread under the Gruyère cheese is soggy and a bit insipid. This is because the bread slices are not toasted enough, or (horrors) not at all. A very amateur mistake, I am told. The 1 cm (half inch) slices are toasted in the oven until they are like croutons...dark golden and very crisped. They go in the bowl first...then the soup is ladled over. One urges most of the onion slices off then comes a generous amount of grated (or very thin slices) of Gruyère cheese (yes, you can cheat with a good Emmentaler too) before settung under a grill to melt and bubble.

A trick I learned is to dip the slices in a little garlic olive oil (a little fresh minced in a tablespoon of oil will do) THEN you toast them. If I am using already day old bread, then a serious rub with garlic before dipping will do it also. The slight amount of garlic is not noticeable, but certainly adds to the flavour dimension.

Not all recipes for this soup mention the garlic trick...I suspect those versions are from the Provence, where garlic is used more than the more northerly areas in France. I also add one sliced garlic clove to the onions as they slowly cook in the butter.

Oh yes...and the onions must be in thin half rings and cooked in the butter until light brown, just starting to caramelize. It makes a huge difference in the flavour of this wonderful peasant soup.

Peasant food, or as known by the Americans from the southern states 'po' folks food' is frugal and practical...using whatever is commonly at hand. OOOOooo...soooooooo good!