French onion soup
I enjoyed a delicious bowl of French Onion soup last night, made with my own little hands. I am beside myself with glee.
You see I have been trying for years to master soup, any soup would do, with not one success.
Now I won’t say that I tried every soup out there, but I have tried quite a few. I have poured out numerous pots of ‘chicken noodle soup.’ Quite a few ‘split pea soups’ and more than a handful ‘Zuppa Toscanas.’
I could not understand my failures. Its soup, I would reason. Just water and meat and vegetables. Why is this so hard? Why does the canned stuff taste so good and mine taste like …. water, meat and vegetables? Its not fair. (sniffle)
I had given up completely when I watched the French Onion Soup segment of Julia Child’s The French Chef. Why watch then? For entertainment purposes only. Some of those episodes are really funny.
But as I watched I kept thinking “I can do it this time.”
(No one motivates quite like Julia.)
I had a bag of onions on hand, so I began. I was amazed, about an hour or so into it, by the wonderful fragrance coming from my pot. I had no idea onions could smell so good.
Browning onions was a new thing for me. It takes a while and I never had a reason to do it. I usually just cooked them until they were tender and translucent. So I had no idea what I had been missing.
I was tempted to forget the soup and make a few burgers just so I could smother them in onions. They smelled so good.
I followed the recipe pretty closely, but I did omit a few things like the wine and the cognac, which meant I had to add a few things to compensate for the flavor they would have added. Also, her recipe called for a whole bay leaf and I only had chopped on hand. The chopped leaves were quite noticeable. I’ll have to remember that next time.
When it came time to bake it, I poured it into a stone baking dish. Then I laid the croutes on top. The croutes consisted of the French bread that I had just baked, sliced, and toasted.
Finally, I covered everything with lots of shredded mozzarella and grated parmesan and baked until golden brown.
Result: Best soup I’ve ever made.
Yeah, only soup I’ve ever made, but it really was very good.
