French Onion Soup

Start by caramelizing your onions. If you have a mandolin, use it to thinly slice your onions. Heat a large skillet, and toss in the butter, cooking on medium heat. Add in all of the onions and stir. About ten minutes into cooking, toss in the pinch of salt, pepper and sugar. Stir and cook until the onions caramelize, about 30 minutes. Reduce the heat if you have to, to prevent burning.

Next get a soup pot heating on medium heat and add the stock, the beef (if using), the minced garlic, thyme, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Toss in the caramelized onions and give everything a good stir. Bring to a light boil, then add the sherry cooking wine. Cook for about 30 minutes.

When you are ready to prepare the soup, preheat your oven to 400 F. Brush some olive oil onto each side of the French bread slices. Depending on the size of your bowl, you can get away with one or two croutons per bowl. Put the slices of bread onto a baking tray and put it into the oven. Cook the bread until golden, then remove from the oven and rub the whole clove of garlic onto the top and bottom of each slice.

Ladle the soup into your French onion soup bowls. If you do not have this type of bowl, don’t worry. You can most likely use a microwave safe bowl as well and heat it in the microwave instead of the oven. Add the croutons to the top of each bowl, and top with a generous amount of cheese. It’s all about the cheese, is it not? Place into the oven (or microwave), and cook until the cheese is nicely melted.

Remove bowls from the oven (or microwave) and dig in. Keep in mind this soup is going to be very hot. Now I have never been a fan of soggy bread, but whoa, in this soup it is just the best thing on Earth! Take a bit of the bread, and scoop down into the onions and beef, and trust me, you will get cheese in every bite. I ate this soup for three days straight, and I’m still thinking about it to this day. Oh yeah, have fun scraping every little bit of cheese from the spoon. That’s my favorite part!