Posted By Michelle on August 27, 2008

French Onion Soup For The Soul

While the majority of the US is on fire or burning from the sun, Tampa Bay has become London - a hot, humid London, but London, nonetheless. A gray, constant drizzle of gloom. We have officially switched.

Most days, the rain starts in the early morning and ends sometime after dark with the occasional break of sun, more of a “Ha Ha! No sun for you!!!” from Mother Nature. To those of you living in the parts of the world where this is just normal, hurray for you, it’s not normal in Tampa Bay.

(Boston Globe AP Photo)
Don’t get us wrong, we’re used to the daily Summer thunderstorm, in fact you can normally set your watch to the 3 PM, one hour long storms. The morning is bright and sunny, clouds roll in, it storms violently for one hour, and then it’s bright and sunny again. Not this year, thanks to La Nina, the suicide rate in the Bay area has doubled this season.

There is a bit of a reprieve now and then, but it will be back to gray and rainy soon – and possibly a hurricane the day after that. Ya know, just for good measure.

In honor of this ‘play spin the bottle with a loaded pistol’ weather, we were in BAD need of something that you could feel in your bones. French Onion Soup would do the trick. Carmelized onions with a robust broth and melted cheese. Oh yeah, bring it on Mother Nature, bring it on.

Greg’s recipe is VERY simple and VERY delicious. The hardest and longest part is waiting for the onions to sweat, and really, the stove does all the work. Have a hard time reading? No biggie, you can watch Greg make this super simple soup , but then how did you ever find this blog if you can’t read?

Once again, YouTube did a number on the video quality, but you’ll get the point.

French Onion Soup
Serves 2

4 sweet onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, sliced (thin, but not Goodfella’s thin)
1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
½ cup red wine
1-½ quarts beef stock
2 slices day old bread
6 slices smoked gruyere cheese
1 tbsp grated parmesan
2 tbsp olive oil
kosher or sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a large pot, over medium-low heat, add 1 tbsp of the olive oil and the sliced onions and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and let these cook slowly for 1 to 1-1/2 hours, stirring occasionally, until all of the water has cooked out of the onions and the onions are nicely browned.

Increase the heat to medium-high and add the red wine and thyme. Bring to a simmer and cook until the volume of the wine has reduced by ½ (about 3-4 minutes).

Add the beef stock, adjust the salt and pepper to your taste, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Place the day old bread slices on a baking sheet and coat both sides with olive oil.

Place oiled bread in a 350 degree oven until crisp (about 10 minutes). Remove from oven. You have just made croutons.

Set the oven to broil

Place two oven-safe bowls on baking sheet (this will help catch any spills – and there will be spills) and ladle the soup into the bowls.

Place the croutons on top of the soup and top the crouton with the gruyere. Then, top the gruyere with the parmesan.

Place the soup bowls on the baking sheet under your broiler and let the cheese melt for 3-5 minutes. The cheese should be nicely browned and bubbly when done.

Remove from the oven, try not to burn yourself on the bowls, and enjoy.

Categories: Our Comfort Food
Tags: french onion soup, french onion soup video, rainy weather comfort food