Ever since I can remember, French Onion Soup has been my favorite restaurant treat. As a child, I'd look at my dad for approval and excitedly and proudly order it as a first course. Campbell's French Onion soup at home (my mom would melt sliced mozzarella string cheese into it) absolutely couldn't touch the salty, brown, gritty, oily, cheesy, and broiled delight that was restaurant or diner french onion.
For the past few years, I have tried recreating the restaurant taste. I've tried red wine, sherry, beef stock, chicken bouillon, Vidalia onions, white onions; the list goes on and on. I have come to terms with the fact that many of the delicious soups I've had (Applebees and Red Robin included) probably aren't authentic and are most likely mass produced and bagged for the restaurant. I've also tasted what I DON'T like in a french onion (a light broth, translucent onions, and little to no brown color) and have tried to stay away from those qualities in my own attempts. When tasting my homemade soups, I've had to separate that nostalgic, salty "chain-restaurant" taste that I grew up with and judge them based on their ingredients, depth of taste, and authenticity.
When I have free time, I like to cook. Cooking is the best kind of art because you can eat the results. I've never been a fan of desserts, so the methodical and daunting science of baking has never been appealing to me. The end result was never something that I looked forward to, and we ended up burning all the pre-cut cookies anyway. When you cook, you can add this and that until the taste is to your liking. It's less of a science and more of a -- like I mentioned -- art.
Anyway, today I was hungry and on a mission to create a one serving, easy and quick french onion soup. I quickly scanned Google for one serving recipes and decided to wing it. Usually I use my mother's large dutch oven pot for making the soup, but today I went with a smaller stainless steel pot, and I'm glad I did. I'll tell you why in a bit.
Ingredients:
margarine or butter
salt and pepper
1 medium sized white onion, sliced
one sprig of thyme
1 roughly chopped clove of garlic
1 teaspoon of AP flour
a "glug glug glug" of red wine (I don't measure...)
2 cups of chicken broth
some water if the soup is too salty
swiss cheese
toasted baguette slices
Unfortunately, I was without slices of good bread, and white sandwich bread tastes sweet and odd when soaked in the soup (I've tried), so I decided to enjoy the soup sans crouton today.
I started by adding the sliced onions, sprig of thyme, and garlic into the pan with a few tablespoons of margarine. It is also important to heat the margarine or butter before adding the onions. Cold fats and whatever you're adding to the pan, onions for example, will create a sticky situation. Salt and pepper the onions for taste. You won't need a lot of salt because of the broth coming up.
Once the onions, garlic, and thyme are in the pan, give them time to get brown. You don't want the onions to burn, but you do want them to leave hearty, brown bits in the pan. Stir the onions often to keep them from sticking. I added a touch of olive oil when I noticed that they needed a little lubricant. Because this was only one onion, I cooked the slices about 20 minutes. They honestly could have gone longer, but I was impatient and hungry!
As you can see in the second picture, the onions have browned quite a bit. Those brown bits will become the color and depth of our broth! Onto the red wine...
I did not measure how much red wine I poured in, but it was enough to almost cover the onions. I turned the heat up, boiled the wine, and turned it back down to simmer. The last picture is after the wine reduced. Next, sprinkle a teaspoon of flour, stir the onions, and keep on low to cook out the flour taste.
Now it's time for the stock or broth! I always thought that onion soups were made with beef broth due to the dark brown color. Most recipes, however, call for chicken! Because I was successful with the brown bits from this stainless steel saucepan, I was able to achieve the brown color with chicken broth. The ceramic dutch oven has never been able to produce the gritty, brown crust that I was looking for. I will definitely be rethinking my pot choice for larger servings in the future!
Once you add the broth or stock (I used a chicken bouillon microwaved and mixed into two cups of water), just let the soup simmer and blend its flavors. The longer you let the soup cook, the better and richer it will taste. I added a splash of water to dilute the salt. Because I was just cooking for myself, I only cooked it an extra 5 minutes after adding the broth before ravenously preparing for the next step!
I ladled the soup into a french onion soup oven-safe bowl, layered Swiss cheese on top, and stuck it into the toaster oven on broil for less than 3 minutes. Without the bread afloat on top, the cheese had nothing to sit on and melted and sunk to the bottom of the bowl. Again, because this soup was just for me, I was okay with this and went to town on it.
The flavor was deep and rich because of the brown bits, the onions were sweet and silky, the broth was salty and its oils coated my tongue. I could taste the flavorful thyme and cabernet. This version of french onion had come together so well in so little time, and it was my best attempt yet. I was truly impressed!
I'm looking forward to recreating this recipe for my family with the right ingredients and dedicating the time it takes to correctly develop the brownness of the onions. My favorite part about this soup is how little ingredients you actually need, and it still packs a punch as a favorite among many.
Bon appétit!