Soup, Glorious Soup!

There is a point in the winter where I crave soup non-stop.

Yes, even in LA.

A few weeks ago, I hit just such a spell and happened to come across this recipe for French Onion Soup in an old Cooks Illustrated and decided to take it on.

If you’re not familiar with Cooks Illustrated and you’re trying to become a better cook, I highly recommend picking up some issues. It’s great for a nerd like me because they explain everything in great detail, so you know exactly why you’re doing something a certain way. They also test and retest recipes hundreds of times before arriving at the version they publish. Thus, if you don’t really care about the why, or are feeling too lazy to read all the back-story, you can feel confident that the recipe is tried and true.

The recipe calls for the following:

For the soup
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
6 large yellow onions, cut into slices
Table salt
2 cups water, plus extra for deglazing (you’ll need quite a bit)
½ cup dry sherry
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups beef broth
6 sprigs of fresh thyme (I couldn’t find any at the store that day, so I went with dry)
1 large bay leaf
Ground Black pepper

For the cheese croutons:

1 small baguette, cut into slices (I used sourdough, and it tasted great)
8 ounces of Gruyere, shredded (yeah, who are we kidding, you’re probably going to want more)

I luckily happened to have both homemade chicken stock and beef stock on hand, so I went out to the store to pick up all the ingredients I was missing. When I returned I was distracted from the task at hand by G, who roped me into a little cuddle session in front of the TV. A worthwhile cause for procrastination, but once I got back to cooking, it had started to get late, and I realized I wasn’t going to complete the recipe that evening, since it is a slow cooking process.

I figured I’d at least get step one going. I put the butter, salt, and onions into my beautiful blue Le Creuset French Oven. (This is my favorite pot. It cooks so well and it’s sooo pretty. Cooking with it always make me happy. I love any excuse to use it!) Then I just popped the whole thing into the 400 degree oven. I got something else going for dinner that night, and let the onion cook for the next 2 and half hours, opening it occasionally to stir. By the end of the night, the onions had begun to caramelize beautifully, and I moved the pot to the fridge to continue the next night. My hope was that this extra time that was forced upon me would help “deepen the flavor” -- because as cooks are always taught through the wisdom passed onto them through the generations of moms, grandmas, and the other venerable cooks that came before them, almost everything is better the next day.

The next night, I came picked up at step two. Basically, you go through a few rounds of cooking and deglazing. The idea here is that you want a “fond” to form, which means you want a to create a crust at the bottom of the pot, which means you’re basically allowing it to start to burn. Then just as it’s really about to burn, you pour in more liquid and scrape the bottom of the pot, reincorporating all those burny bits along with smoky, caramelized flavor they’ve acquired.

Once all the deglazing is done, you add in the sherry and cook that off for a few minutes. Next come the broths, water, and the rest of the soup ingredients. Bring it all to a simmer. Once you’ve got the simmer going, reduce heat and step away from the pot for 30 minutes.

I used this time to squeeze in a yoga dvd.

Once savasana was over, I returned to get the cheese toast going. Ideally, you’d toast the bread, float a piece onto each bowl of soup, add cheese on top, then pop the whole thing into the broiler to melt the cheese. My bowls didn’t fit in the broiler or the toaster oven, so I just made cheese toasts and put one on each bowl of soup and then sprinkled on some extra cheese. (Note, if you use fresh herbs, remember to spoon those out of the pot before serving soup into bowls)

I served the soup with a light spinach salad and a chardonnay.

I found this website, WinedIn.com , that helps pair wine with food.
Chardonnay was amongst the suggestions, and I went with a Chard from Red Bicyclette, because it was on sale at the store and I was trying to stay on a budget. I don’t really know whites all that well (really, I’m still a fledgling in the world of wines in general), but it was pretty blah. I guess one gets what one pays for, but I think you can do better even at the price. I also think I would have preferred a slightly sweeter wine to contrast with intense savory flavors in the soup.

So, the wine was just meh, but the soup was fabulous if I do say so myself. It was smoky and rich, with all of those caramelized flavors in the back-ground. It was incredibly soul satisfying. Next, I’d say I don’t think I would do quite as many rounds of deglazing. I think 2 to 3 would be just fine. After four, there were a few smoky bits going on here and there. I’d also add a little more liquid because the bread just soaks it all up like a sponge very quickly. However, on the whole this is a great recipe and definitely worth the wait when you have the time.

Maybe cook it up on a lazy weekend day when you’re puttering around the house.