I was a little slow on getting this next posting out but in the culinary world that is a great thing! You never want to rush to the finish on many dishes. Such is the case of French Onion Soup. If you just give this dish the time required you will be rewarded, I promise! And if you already have no issues with waiting games, good for you! But if you are like me, you want it. Now. And learning to wait is something that needs to be learned and practiced.
French Onion soup needs the slow process of caramelization but its not so bad because you can walk away from it while it does it's thing.
I am not so much concerned with recipes as I am with technique. I will give you what I have been taught and if you have a recipe you want to try, consider the method here when you are making that.
For French Onion soup there is one main thing that has to be done right. The Onion!
Clean off the outter skin of the onions. Cutting the onion correctly makes a huge difference. You want to julienne cut the onion, not slice. The julienne cut follows the ribs of the onion where a slice cuts across the rib. To do this cut it in half from pole to pole and trim off the ends then start cutting in the same direction as the ribs-parallel to them. If you cut across them you will get half circles and they won't break down as well and be soft in the mouth. With the julienne cut they will become softer, more delicate. It made a big difference in the end product and it doesn't take any more time to do it this way.
Sweat the onions in butter (or oil if the recipe calls for it, but we like butter at LCB) Sweating is a slow and low cooking process. Cover it to keep the heat in and assist in the caramelization. It took about 30 minutes for one onion. Check on it occasionally and give it a stir, make sure your heat is low enough so it doesn't burn or caramelize to fast or you have to start over. You don't need to season until the end because the flavors will concentrate and you don't want it overly salty when you are done.
When your onions have a caramel color to them add about 1 ounces of brandy, some fresh herbs and reduce to au sec. Au sec means until almost dry. There should be a little bit of the liquid left in the pan after evaporation to where it is almost like a syrup. If you tilt the pan there should be very little to no liquid collecting in the corner. This should just take a minute or two. Now you can add about 2 cups of beef stock (for one onion) and let cook for a while to develop the flavors.
At this point you can toast some bread rounds in a pan or oven and prepare a little gruyere or swiss cheese.
When ready to serve, place 2 toast rounds on top of the soup and sprinkle with cheese. Remember it is Onion soup, not bread and cheese soup so don't over do it on both.
Place under a broiler for a few moments to melt the cheese and top with some fresh herbs and you are set!
If you get a chance to try this simple method out, please let me know you liked it!
