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Monday, December 19, 2011

SRC Onion Soup




I'm excited to say that the Secret Recipe Club has once again led me to an awesome blogger. Juls lives in South East England and blogs at Pepper and Sherry. Juls is a twenty something catering student. My first glance at Juls blog was one of, 'oh no' what can I cook.
By most standard Juls and I are eons apart. She lives half way around the world, is young enough to be my child and cooks with items unavailable in my smallish mid western town. But actually the more I read about Juls the more I realized we were alike. We both use cooking as a therapy, it really can heal the soul. There is a certain joy in gathering fresh ingredients, chopping, dicing and cooking. Smelling wonderful scents and tasting. And then sharing these labors with those we love.

I had to laugh at Juls response to her boyfriends dislike of onions. "I like onions", she stated, "and I will cook with onions". I had a similar problem 36 years ago when I married my hubby. I'm happy to report that Juls boyfriend and my hubby both now like onions!
Juls doesn't care for cumin which is interesting because my hubby calls cumin 'the stinky armpit' spice. I use it anyway--in moderation.
So, take a moment and get to know Juls, I would love to sit down and have lunch with her. Thank you Juls for letting me stalk your blog this month!
So what did I make from Juls blog? Well Onion Soup of course. I've wanted to make something like the restaurant version of French Onion Soup. But I didn't want an inch of chewy cheese and soggy toast. So thanks to Juls Onion Soup Recipe I made a perfect version for me.



Onion Soup

  • 4 large onions
  • 1 pint chicken stock--I used 4 cups (I like a lot of broth)
  • 3 cloves minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary (I had fresh bay leaves)
  • 3 tablespoons red wine (omitted--non drinker)
  • 1 tablespoon Worcester sauce
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • Optional: slices of baguette and grated emmental.
METHOD:
  1. Heat up a little butter on a low heat in the saucepan and finely chop the onions into half rings.
  2. Add the onions, minced garlic and rosemary to the pan, cover for ten minutes.
  3. Take the cover off and cook very slowly on this low heat to caramelise – it should take about forty five minutes until all the onions are soft, sweet, stringy and brown. (I had to cook an extra 30 minutes--my low must be too low).
  4. Add the red wine and Worcester sauce and cook into the onions.
  5. Pour in the stock and season.
  6. Preheat your grill and cut some slices of baguette and sprinkle on about half a handful of grated Gruyere on each. (I melted the cheese under the broiler. Cut the cheese toast into croutons and floated a few on the hot soup).
  7. Serve the soup into bowls and place the baguette slices and cheese on top and put the bowls under the grill for about five minutes until the cheese is bubbling and golden.
  8. Remember the plates are hot so remove with gloves and serve the bowls on plates.

11 comments:

  1. I visit Juls' site too and love it. Onion soup is a fave and what a great pick for SRC.

    Happy Holidays!

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  2. Aw! Thank you for all the sweet words you say about my blog! This recipe is always a failsafe for me and has always worked well and I'm glad it did so for you! And yes, my boyfriend now eats onions (but has waged war on mushrooms. This is not on)
    For clarifications sake I think what you call a broiler is what we call a grill (the overhead heating bit attached to or part of the oven?). There's always these weird obstavles when reading recipes online from other places in the world - it took me ages to work out that what Americans call cornflour was very different to what we call cornflour and thus had many failed cornbread attempts before I figured it out!

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  3. Oh,YUMMY! I love onion soup...especially topped with cheesy toasts! Excellent SRC pick~

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  4. One of my favorite soups on earth. Yours looks delish. We actually just had french onion soup last night for dinner. Glad to be part of SRC with you. Happy Holidays!!

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  5. Cindy....what an absolutely lovely post. It's amazing, how different we bloggers are....but there's always something in common. Your soup looks just scrumptious. It would have hit the spot for me today! : )

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  6. Looks like a wonderful Onion Soup. Great choice for SRC :)

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  7. A bowl of onion soup sounds amazing right at this moment. Your soup looks delicious. I totally agree that cooking is therapuetic! Will have to check out Jus site.

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  8. I love how you related to Juls even though your sooooo old ;) for me onions and cumin could be my secret lovers. I absolutely adore onion soup.

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  9. What a wonderful looking soup. You picked a winner for SRC. Merry Christmas!

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  10. I never even thought about trying to make onion soup... and it's one of my favorites. I guess I've just never seen a good recipe for it. Yours looks amazing!

    Come link up with my linky party at The Southern Institute, if you haven't already. Each link is an entry in the Pick Your Plum giveaway! Here's the link:

    http://www.thesoutherninstitute.com/2011/12/creative-me-monday_18.html

    Hope to see you there!

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  11. FOS...my favorite soup EVER...seriously I am addicted to French Onion Soup and order it everywhere I go. Thanks for a new take! Merry Christmas to me from you on this one!

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