Lances Best in the World French Onion soup!!
I intended to save this for later, but a friend asked me to post this.
It is ironic that I am a maker of this soup, as I grew up hating onions. Well, as you can see, I got over it.
This recipe was taken from an old cookbook and adapted to my taste. It makes a great onion soup, one anyone can make and enjoy.
What you need:
6 oven proof bowls
5 or six medium sized yellow or white onions (not sweet onions)
a loaf of French bread...or any crusty bread
about a pound of Swiss Cheese
A bottle of good white wine...
6 cups of beef broth...you can make your own or use beef bouillon
vegetable cooking oil
butter or margarine
A large pot
A medium size pot
Salt and pepper
Sugar
A large ladle
A sharp knife
A corkscrew (If you are using wine that does not require a corkscrew you cant make this soup, so stop now!)
A stove with oven
4-6 hungry people
Start by cutting up the onions, not dicing, but leaving them in half rings or quarter rings. They don't have to be uniform, either. Next, prepare your beef broth, however you decide, bringing to just below boiling. While this is heating put about 2 tablespoons of oil and a big dollop of margarine or butter in the big pot. Add the onions, stirring and coating them. Stir them occasionally, until they are rather limp and transparent. while this is going on open the wine and pour a nice big glass...you didn't think it would all go in the soup did you?? Get the cheese out and grate it (the cheese goes good with the wine, too) The onions are done by now, so add 1 teaspoon of sugar, stirring some more.
By now the broth is hot. Add it to the onions and stir. Drink some more wine. Let it simmer covered for 20 minutes. Add 1/2 cup wine. Salt and pepper to taste. Uncover and simmer another 10 minutes. While you are waiting, cut the bread, butter it and get the bowls out. Pour yourself more wine. Eat some bread...with the cheese now, its great with the wine.
Using your ladle and much care, put the soup in the bowls. If you have had too much wine this can be tricky. Put a piece of bread on top of each bowl, then the cheese on top of that, making sure the bread gets soaked well. Place the bowls in the broiler, about 3 inches below the heat. Broil until the cheese bubbles.
Serve with the rest of the bread and white wine...you probably should have bought two bottles if you have company who likes wine. White Zinfandel goes great with the soup, too. Oh, you can double the recipe pretty easy, and I tripled it once...keep the sugar down, if you do. Everything else is pretty straight across the board...except the wine...only drink one bottle while preparing it.
Enjoy!
3 comments:
I can't wait to make this again! I'm curious though...why do you use yellow or white onions instead of sweet onions?
I use white or yellow onions because of flavor. I tried sweet onions once and they were too sweet and did not lend enough onion flavor to the soup.
Have made this recipe many time over many years, always delivers; did a search as my paper printout was pretty natty - and found many "Lance's Onion Soup" recipe's, but this is the original, with the flourish and the imposition of drinking while you cook (reccomeneded).
My only suggestion, a whole cup of wine in the soup - and nowadays a screw top NZ Sauvignon Blanc should be considered acceptable for this brew !
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