As a postgrad student, I enjoy the finer things in life. A $12 bottle of wine instead of a 6 pack of Tasman Bitter, plunger coffee instead of Gregg’s Red Ribbon Roast, a Signature Range pepper grinder thing instead of that awful sneezy powdered black pepper. As I write this, in the holidays, I have my first cold of the season and all I want is little kid comfort food – soup and cheese on toast – and as I have been earthquake-evicted from my warm office to my cold flat I have a lot of time to mooch around the kitchen. No Maggi powdered soup and cruskits for me, I’m writing a thesis on something utterly irrelevant! I deserve better!
French onion soup is very easy to make – I first made it when I was 14 and borderline incompetent – and takes forever but tastes incredible. One recipe I found called it drunkard’s soup, as it would see you right during an epic hangover. This recipe is a bastardisation of the one made famous by the inimitable Julia Childs. The recipe asks for a dry white wine, which isn’t exactly at the forefront of any student kitchen, so here it’s optional (but recommended), and if you're stuck you could probably get away with red wine, beer or cider. It requires a brown stock, preferably beef, but mushroom or something similar will do for the vegetarians. You can also use half bought stock and half boiling water. I am a heathen and often use chicken stock for reasons outlined below. This soup is traditionally served with little floaty bits of cheesy bread or grated parmesan. Finally, lovely Julia also requests that a small amount of rum or cognac be added to the soup immediately before serving, but I drank all the spirits so left that bit out. Verdict: good for what ails you.
French onion soup – makes 6 small portions or 4 comfort-sized portions
- 5 – 7 onions (approx 700 grams)
- 50g butter
- 1 tablespoon oil
- A big pinch of white sugar (approx ¼ teaspoon)
- 3 tablespoons of flour
- ½ cup dry white wine (optional)
- 2 litres of stock or stock-type substance
- Salt and pepper
Slice the onions thinly – you will need about 5 cups worth. Have a cry. Place the onions, the butter and the oil in a pot, and over the lowest heat possible melt it together. Give it a stir, put a lid on it and let it cook for 15 minutes. Go check facebook.
Add the sugar and a little salt and turn up the heat a little. Cook the onions until they are a rich golden brown, like the colour of fudge. This will take a while, around half an hour or more, and you need to stir frequently to make sure they don’t burn or catch. Don’t leave out the sugar – it helps the onion caramelise. This is the most important part of the recipe and will smell so good that your nosy scabby flatmates will start appearing to see what you are up to.
When the onions have caramelised, add the flour and cook for three minutes, stirring the whole time. If you are using the wine, add it all in one go and give it a big stir. Everything should look a little pasty. Add the stock, slowly at first, stirring between additions (it helps if you have heated it up first but if not oh well). Add pepper and salt if you think it needs it – be careful though, ready made stocks can be quite salty as it is. Simmer the whole lot for around 30 – 40 minutes. Eat it with cheese toasties.
Cheese toasties
Don’t turn up your nose, adding an egg to cheese toasties makes the topping light and fluffy and a bit more filling. This is enough for 3 – 4 bits of toast bread, depending on how much cheesiness you like and how big your bread is.
- 1 egg
- A couple of big handfuls of grated cheese
- Something to spread – eg, sweet chilli sauce or tomato sauce
- Thinly sliced bits for on top – eg salami, ham, mushroom, courgette, tomato
Preheat the oven to 190°C. Toast the bread lightly, enough to dry it out a little so that the toasties don’t go soggy. Whisk the egg and add the cheese until it is totally covered but not looking gloopy or snotty. If you want some sort of sauce, spread it sparingly on the toast. Smoosh the cheese mix on to the bread with a fork, going right out to the edges. If you want bits on top, arrange them over the top, then crack some pepper over the top. Bake the toasties on a tray for 15 – 20 minutes – the topping should puff up a little and go a nice golden brown, and feel firm if you poke it with your finger. You can also grill these but they can burn quite quickly as it takes some time for the egg to cook.
A word about stock: You can buy ready-made stuff, but it’s expensive (~$5/L) and you can use oxo cubes, about 1 to every 2 cups of boiling water, but be careful about salt. We make our own chicken stock whenever we have a roast or chicken legs for dinner. Take the carcass / bits, put them in a pot with a quartered onion, some broken up carrot, some celery and enough water to just cover it all and simmer for a couple of hours. When it looks and smells good, let it cool, drain off the fluid using a sieve (or similar) and either freeze it or use it. Easy as.
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