A French classic Рthe famous French onion soup Рfinished with bread and gratin̩e with cheese.

This is a great, cheap, winter warmer – a real country “paysan” food, often served in the early hours of the morning on the wedding night to the bride and groom.

_______________________________

Level: Very easy

Preparation Time : 40 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

400 g Onions (red or yellow)

40g butter

25g plain flour

1,5 litres of beef or Chicken stock (or the same of water and a stock cube)

1 glass of red wine

1 liqueur glass of Cognac or Armagnac

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Fresh Grated nutmeg

Stale Baguettte or baguette de campagne

120g Grated Gruyere, Cantal entre deux, Salers or Mature Cheddar

___________________________________________________________

Directions

Peel and slice the onions into fine rounds

Melt the butter in a saucepan gently, enduring it doesn’t brown or burn, add the onions and fry gently.

Cover the pan and continue frying on a gentle heat for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

When the onions are soft, uncover the pan and increase the heat to brown the onions – stirring from time to time to avoind the onions sticking, be careful not to burn them (if you burn the onions the soup will have a bitter taste).

When the onions are golden brown, add the cognac to the pan, if you are cooking on gas, tilt the pan so that the Cognac ignite, if not use a long match to flambé the onions and deglaze the pan.

When the alcohol has burnt off, add the plain flour and mix well to avoid lumps forming.

Add a ladle of the stock and stir well then add the remainder of the stock and the glass of wine, bring to a gentle boil, stirring to mix the flour and produce a smooth soup.

Season with salt and black pepper to taste, add a small grating of nutmeg – not too much or it will overpower the soup.

Continue simmering for 10 minutes

Transfer the soup into ovenproof dishes

Cut the bread into slices then grill lightly in the oven.

Put the bread into the soup dishes and finish with a good sprinkling of grated cheese.

Put the dishes under the grill in the oven, when the cheese is grilled to a light golden colour serve immediately with chunks of fresh bread.

Enjoy with a Côteaux de Languedoc, a Beaujolais Villages or an Alsace Reisling

Bon Appétit!

Copy Protected by Chetan's WP-Copyprotect.