soupe à l’oignon gratinée

Brett was called out on a standby this afternoon, which left me with very little enthusiasm for tonight's dinner as there's zero point spending ages cooking a delicious dinner when I'm home alone. But at the same time I didn't really feel like having toast either.. So I searched through the fridge for inspiration and found a big pack of brown onions that looked like they had to be eaten. Since I'm a caramelised onion fiend and since it is actually quite cool in our apartment today, I thought it was an excellent opportunity to make French onion soup. This also gave me an excuse to use my beloved cast iron Dutch oven!

When caramelising onion the trick is to slice the onion super thin to speed up the cooking process a little without having to add too much sugar and salt. I hate when restaurants (even good ones) do this! It still needs a fair bit of time to cook and the occasional stir, but it's quite low maintenance, which suited me perfectly tonight.

Ingredients:

4 large onions
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

4 cups of beef stock
1/4 cup sherry
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram

8 slices of baguette, lightly toasted
1 cup grated Gruyere cheese

Instructions:

1. Slice onions very very finely.
2. Add butter to Dutch oven and melt. Add the onion, salt and sugar and cook over medium heat until the onions are soft and lightly golden (approximately 20 min).
3. Turn down the heat and continue caramelising for another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. 
4. When the onions are sticky, shiny and golden brown - add the sherry and scrape off all the brown bits that are sticking to the bottom. Caramelise for another 10 minutes until the onions are dark brown.
5. Add the stock, herbs and sale and pepper to taste. Simmer for 10 - 15 minutes. 
6. Pour soup into individual ramekins. Place two slices of toasted bread into the soup and top with grated cheese.
7. Place ramekins on a baking tray and put in the oven straight under the grill and cook for 2-3 minutes until the cheese melts.  

Bon appetite!