French Onion Soup

A Starter or a Good Lunch

I've made this several times as a starter; it's a classic and very yummy soup.

It can be made in a vegetarian version simply by using vegetable stock rather than beef; I use the beef, but if you have vegetarian tendencies or visitors, the taste is different but just as good. Traditionalists and/or kitchen professionals might want to use home made stock from bones or vegetable matter; I'm far too lazy for that and I'd be prepared to bet that most people in the home environment won't taste enough difference to make the effort worthwhile.

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Ingredients to serve four:

6 medium onions (if in doubt use more or larger), finely sliced.

80-100g butter

1 litre (or slightly over) of water

2 beef (or vegetarian) stock cubes

250ml dry white wine (I have used rosé and that's nice, too)

a dried bay leaf

a level teaspoon of dried thyme

freshly ground black pepper, salt to taste

French bread, sliced about half an inch thick - you'll need to judge how many slices per person depending on what size of loaf you have.

a clove of garlic, chopped in half

300-350g grated cheese (if you can, use Emmenthal or Gruyere)

50g grated Parmesan cheese (mix the two varieties of cheese together)

What to do:

Preheat the oven to Gas 9 or 10 (very hot) / 250C / 500F

Melt the butter in a large saucepan.

Add the sliced onion and fry over a gentle heat and keep stirring for about 10 minutes; the onion slices should be golden and transparent (not browned).

Pour over the stock and wine; add the thyme and black pepper.

Have a quick taste - if you think it needs salt, add a little now.

Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer gently for 30-35 minutes.

If you're going to serve as soon as it's ready - put the bread slices on a greased baking tray into the oven for 6-8 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool so you can handle them.

Rub the halves of garlic clove over the surface of the browned bread, this gently infuses a garlic flavour into your croutons (that's the bread you've just browned) without becoming overpowering.

Serve the soup into bowls and plop the croutons onto the surface of the soup.

Sprinkle the grated cheeses onto the croutons and then put the bowls onto a baking tray and pop them into the oven for around 5-6 minutes until the cheese has melted (you might like to let it bubble as well, but b careful of burning the croutons).

That's it.

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To drink? Nothing suits this better than a big gutsy Bordeaux Supérior or a robust Cotes de Rhone. Other red wines are available! If you're a white wine only sort of person, this will be best with a dry one. If you're feeling adventurous and not very thirsty, try a small glass of Tio Pepe sherry alongside your French onion soup.