Soupe à l'oignon!

We've had a few people saying they miss our soups and one that keeps getting asked for is French onion soup. Whilst we can't serve it to you at the moment, we thought we would share the recipe.

A couple of key things for this soup; take your time with the onions and use good quality wine and sherry. You want them to be soft and caramelised, not brown and burnt. This can take anything up to an hour so nice and low with the lid on stirring from time to time. You want a nice golden caramel colour. Use a good sherry and white wine. I use an Oloroso sherry but Manzanilla or Fino work too and our Duffour Côtes De Gascogne wine.

Ingredients:

Soup

100g butter

1 kg brown onions sliced (Spanish if you can get them)

4 cloves garlic chopped

sprig of thyme

bay leaf

250 ml white wine

2 tbsp plain flour

1.2l beef stock (I use Kallo organic beef stock)

75 ml Sherry

salt & pepper

Croutons

French bread

olive oil

1 clove of garlic

100g Comté cheese grated

Method:

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan

2. add the sliced onions, garlic, thyme and bay leaf and stir well

3. simmer on a low heat with the lid on for 45 mins - 1 hour stirring occasionally. You don't want the onions to catch and burn as this leaves a bitter taste

4. add the white wine and reduce by two thirds so there's just a coating of liquid but not dry

5. stir on the flour and cook for 1 min stirring to stop it sticking

6. add the stock gradually so the soup doesn't go lumpy

7. add the sherry

8. simmer for 30 mins on a low heat

9. taste and add salt & pepper as required. About 1 teaspoon of salt and 10 grinds of pepper

10. to make the croutons heat oven to 180c, slice the bread about 1 - 1.5 cm thick and drizzle olive oil on each side. Bake in the oven for approx 10 - 15 mins so they're crisp but not dried out. Rub each side with the peeled clove of garlic

11. ladle the soup into bowls, top with a crouton and put a good handful of grated cheese on top. Place back in the oven for approx 10 mins until the cheese is golden and bubbling - voila!

Let me know how you get on!

We stock some of the ingredients we use on our online shop:

https://www.petitechouette.co.uk/product-page/comt%C3%A9-d-estive

https://www.petitechouette.co.uk/product-page/copy-of-elle-amp-vire-french-butter-unsalted

https://www.petitechouette.co.uk/product-page/duffour-p%C3%A8re-et-fils-igp-c%C3%B4tes-de-gascogne