French Onion Soup

     Surprisingly, I had never actually had french onion soup ever!  All the years in and out of restaurants I saw it sitting in its pan being served.  It just never looked appetizing to me at all.  Over the years I saw pictures in various food magazines served with crusty bread and melted cheese, it always looked delicious in the magazines.  Then one day someone was talking about it and I just had to make a batch and it was absolutely delicious.  I intend to post recipes as I make them so I can accompany my post with a tantalizing picture of my creation but someone is eagerly awaiting me to post this recipe so here it is.  Maybe the next time I make it I will update this post with a delicious looking picture.  

    I serve mine with gruyere, most restaurants serve it with swiss.  I much prefer gruyere, it is a very delicious cheese.  Keep in mind this is a halved recipe, you can double the ingredients to get the normal amount of soup but for me, this is a great amount.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup unsalted butter

2 yellow onions sliced

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 bay leaf

1 fresh thyme sprig

kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup red wine (I like cabernet for this, I usually drink yellow tail)

1 1/2 heaping TB all purpose flour

1 quart beef broth (I use better than bouillon and they even have a vegetarian beef broth substitute, a mushroom broth would also be a delicious substitute)

1/2 baguette sliced

1/4 lb grated gruyere cheese

Melt butter in a large soup size pot over medium high heat.  I like very heavy bottomed pans; 18/10 steel preferably.

Add the onions, garlic, bay leave, thyme, salt and pepper and cook until onions are carmelized, about 25 minutes.  Add the wine, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until wine is evaporated and onions are dry, about 5 minutes.  Discard the bay leaf and thyme sprig.  Dust the onions with the flour and stir.  Turn heat down to medium low to prevent flour from burning and cook 10 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste.  Add beef broth and bring soup back up to a simmer and cook 10 minutes.  Season to taste with s&p.

Preheat broiler, I like using my toaster oven and top each slice with cheese and melt and serve on the side.  You could also use soup crocs and top soup with bread and cheese and broil until melted.  I like to use these little crocs that were my grandmothers.  You might be able to find them in second hand shops or have something similar at a nice specialty cooking shop