Simply Delicious: French Onion Soup

The lunches of my youth, growing up as I did in a small town in Central Oregon, where the annual summer festival celebrated the potato and crowned a potato queen, were a typical smorgasbörd of the times: bologna sandwich on white bread alternated with tuna fish, with cottage cheese and potato chips on the side.

Soups, which occasionally made an appearance at lunch or dinner, were from the good folks at Campbell's, usually chicken vegetable or Scotch broth (my mother's favorite). Dave wooed me with his doctored canned tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I didn't learn to make a pot of soup until college, when I ran a coffeehouse in the basement of the university's Koinonia center. Mind you, I didn't cook the soups, but had a crew of volunteers I'd wrangled from friends and staff who would make the day's offering in a five-gallon pot.

The soups—and the price, which was just a couple of bucks for a big bowl of soup and a slice of "peasant" bread—attracted a large, regular following, running the gamut from Jane's potato-lentil to Ed's split pea to Mike's startlingly good beer cheese. Robert's French onion was always a huge hit with its rich, beefy stock and chunk of cheese-topped bread. I had a file of all of their recipes, since on occasion I had to pinch hit as chef du jour when one of my cooks couldn't make it in due to colds, flu or a raging hangover (it was college, after all).

I still make my favorites now and then, and have added a killer black bean soup, curried squash and a few chowders to the mix. My friend Kathryn recently reminded me of my soupy beginnings when she mentioned a particularly amazing yet simple French onion soup she'd made recently from a recipe by Jacques Pepin. Since we've no doubt got a few days left of rain, I thought it might be appropriate to share it.

French Onion Soup
Adapted from Jacques Pepin

1 lb. onions, quartered lengthwise and sliced thinly crosswise
2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
8 c. chicken stock
3-4 cloves garlic, minced fine
3 sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
3/4 lb. Emmenthaler, Gruyère or Jarlsberg cheese, grated
Baguette, sliced crosswise into 1/2" thick slices, toasted

Preheat the oven to 425°. Place 6 small oven-proof crocks (1 1/2 c. capacity) on a cookie sheet. Place 2-3 slices baguette in each crock. Sprinkle 1 or 2 Tbsp. cheese on top of bread.

Melt butter or margarine in Dutch oven or soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté till golden brown, stirring frequently so they don't burn, about 15 min. Add chicken stock, garlic and thyme and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 min. Remove any twigs of thyme and add salt and pepper to taste.

Fill the crocks to the brim with the soup. Sprinkle each crock with 1/2 c. cheese, pressing the cheese onto the rim so that it will form a crust. Put the cookie sheet in the oven and bake 30 min. until the cheese is golden, puffed and crusty.

French Accent

My friend Maggie's husband is a great cook. Not only is he a master pit master, 'cuing up mixed grills for his family to munch on all through the week, but he's handy with indoor cooking, too, making a mean pot au feu and a killer pasta with garlic and anchovies. Recently he's been working on the perfect beef broth so he can make Vietnamese pho at home.

When Maggie mentioned that he had some extra beef stock and would I be interested in having some, let's just say she didn't have to ask twice. I had several onions on hand, so pulled out The Cooking of Provincial Francefrom the Time-Life Foods of the World series. The gorgeous hard-bound books my mother ordered (and never looked at) have long since gone, but the small, cardboard-covered recipe books that came with them are treasured resources that I spent hours of my youth poring over.

Many of the recipes in this particular one, I found out years later when reading her biography, were written by Julia Child and reflect her meticulous yet simply stated style. Needless to say, her recipe for French onion soup is not only definitive but totally delicious.

French Onion Soup

Adapted from The Cooking of Provincial Francefrom the Time-Life Foods of the World series

For the soup:
4 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 pounds onions, thinly sliced (about 7 cups)
1 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. flour
2 qts. beef stock or beef and chicken stock, combined
Salt and pepper, to taste

For the croûtes:
4 slices of French bread, cut into one-inch thick slices
2 tsp. olive oil
1 garlic clove, cut
1 c. grated Swiss cheese or Swiss and freshly grated Parmesan cheese, combined

In a heavy 4 to 5-quart saucepan or a soup kettle, melt the butter with the oil over moderate heat. Stir in the onions and salt and cook uncovered over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 20 or 30 minutes or until the onions are a rich golden brown. Sprinkle flour over the onions and cook, stirring, for 2 or 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. In a separate saucepan, bring the stock to a simmer, then stir the hot stock into the onions. Return the soup to low heat and simmer, partially covered, for another 30 or 40 minutes, occasionally skimming off the fat. Taste for seasoning, and add salt and pepper if needed.

While the soup simmers, make the croûtes. Preheat the oven to 325°. Spread the slices of bread in one layer on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. With a pastry brush, lightly coat both sides of each slice with olive oil. Then turn the slices over and bake for another 15 minutes or until the bread is completely dry and lightly browned. Rub each slice with the cut garlic clove and set aside.

To serve, place the croûtes in a large tureen or individual soup bowls and ladle the soup over them. Pass the grated cheese separately.