Traditional French onion soup
Serves 4 to 6 people
The power of water and onions merge into one, perhaps the best soup in the Western world. The reason for the acclaim is not just because it's delicious and satisfying, but because it's affordable. This is the soup of the farmhouse, the raw material is only onions, a few pieces of hard bread, some crushed cheese and water, salt for seasonings, what wine is used when you have at hand, and some vinegar is enough. Don't use broth! Even a good homemade broth can easily make the soup too thick and greasy to damage the plain flavor. Do not add canned broth, how many onion soups are ruined by adding commercially available broth. It wasn't until I learned the magic of water that there was more than enough water in my kitchen.
I've never seen a recipe for an onion soup that doesn't have to be broth or canned broth, which completely changes the flavor of the soup into beef onion soup or chicken onion soup. I couldn't find a historical basis to support my belief until I started researching the special style of the Bistro in Lyon, France called bouchon. There are only 20 restaurants of this style left in Lyon, and their cuisine is very unique, with rustic home cooking. Sometimes you sit at a common table and the plates go from this table to that table. What I love about bouchon is that they serve food that is inherently purely efficient, often where husbands or wives run it. I once spoke to a Lyon journalist who was an expert on lavrai bouchon (real Lyon tavern cuisine), and he affirmed my long-held suspicion that the so-called bouchon, in fact, is mostly a shop run by rural couples, and that the broth that costs a lot of money will not be used on onion soup. Sprinkle the onion with a few drops of wine to taste and melt it in the cheese with a few pieces of hard bread – that's all the ingredients needed for a good soup that has a pure caramel onion flavor.
Make this soup in advance, as it takes time, at least a few hours, for the onion to be soft, and even up to 5 hours if you keep cooking over low heat, although you just have to pay attention to it at the beginning and end. Before the onion is caramelized, it releases a lot of water (be sure to try this liquid), which is first boiled to the fullest. If you want to shorten the cooking time, you can first cook the onion until it is large, so you have to take care of the pot and turn the onion from time to time to avoid the onion sticking to the pan or burning. You can caramelize the onion a day or two in the morning, put it in the refrigerator and use it before taking it out. In doing so, the onion soup ends up spending time on hot soup and melted top cheese.
material
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 7 to 8 Spanish onions, about 3.2 to 3.6 kg, finely cut into strips
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 6 to 12 slices of Baguette or any country-style bread (bread width is best enough to cover the final serving utensils)
• 1/3 cup (75 ml) sherry
• Red wine vinegar or white wine vinegar (free choice)
• Red wine (free choice)
• 225 to 340 Gruyère cheese or Emmenthaler cheese, cut into crumbs
method
Take a large pot that holds all the onions, with a capacity of about 7.1 liters, and it would be better if you use an enamel cast iron pot. Place the pot on the stove and preheat it over medium heat and melt the butter. Add the onion and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of salt, cover the pot and cook until the onion is hot and steaming out. Lift the lid, reduce heat and continue to cook, stirring from time to time (as soon as it starts to come out of the water, you can leave the onion for a few hours). Sprinkle a little pepper to taste.
The oven is preheated to 95°C (200°F) and the slices of bread are baked in the oven until completely dry (as long as the oven temperature does not scorch the bread, you can leave the slices in the oven for a while).
When the onion is fully boiled and the water is boiled dry, the onion becomes amber, which takes several hours. Add 6 cups (1.4 liters) of water, bring the soup to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low heat. Add sherry, taste the flavor, and see if you need to flavor it with salt and pepper. If the soup is too sweet, add a little vinegar. If you want the soup to taste more deep, sprinkle a few drops of red wine. Adding 6 cups of water is the ratio of onion to soup I like, but if you prefer a more delicate soup, add another 1 cup (240 ml) of water.
Preheat the small oven or charcoal oven, scoop some of the onion soup into a large bowl that can be placed in the oven, add bread and float on top, spread the cheese, bake until the cheese melts to a beautiful brown, and then serve.
1. The correct browning of the onion should be a uniform burnt brown.
2. Once the onion browns, add water to extract the flavor.
3. The cheese should cover the bowl evenly, so please gratuate instead of sliced
4. Scoop the hot soup into a bowl and add the bread to the lid with cheese.
5. The onion soup should have a thick onion so that the bread can stand on it.
6. When served, the small bowl is covered with cheese, which is a great dish.