FRENCH ONION SOUP GRATINÉE

SOURCE: JULIA CHILD. JULIA CHILD AND MORE COMPANY.

Homemade French Onion Soup was Julia Child’s final meal before she succumbed peacefully to kidney failure two days prior to her 92nd birthday in 2004. Fortunately, the soup was not her fearsome death knell, but embodied a humble celebration of her life through comfort food. As a matter of fact, a phenomenal French Onion Soup has an enigmatic je ne sais quoi powerful enough to hormonally trigger a soul-baring experience, especially when served in gratinée. Perhaps, it is how the pungently lachrymose onion slices rupture into an amber sweetness. Or, it can be how the dynamic duo of the deglazing wine and stock elevates the soup by dissolving the caramel flavors that have stuck onto the pot surface. Better yet, it may be how the grated Gruyère cheese floating above the soup melts and bubbles under the broiling heat into a golden creamy layer that pulls into beautiful silky strings with each excavation of the spoon. Such existentialist reflection brought by a French Onion Soup Gratinée warrants a joie de vivre at the table.

Ingredients

Onion Soup

3 tablespoons/45 grams unsalted butter

1 tablespoons/15 mL olive oil OR peanut oil

6 cups/750 grams yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced

1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons/15 grams all-purpose flour

8 cups/2 L hot beef stock, preferably homemade

2 cups/500 mL dry white wine or dry white vermouth

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 loaf of firm and full-texture French bread, preferably a French baguette

2 tablespoons/28 grams or more unsalted butter

Freshly ground pepper

OPTIONAL: 4 to 5 tablespoons/60 to 75 mL Cognac

1 1/4 cups/125 grams coarsely grated Swiss cheese, preferably Gruyère

OPTIONAL: 2 egg yolks

OPTIONAL: 1/4 cup/60 mL Port OR Madeira wine

Specific Equipment

Heavy-bottomed stockpot

Baking pan to toast the bread

A large and deep ovenproof tureen or casserole OR 6 individual ovenproof earthenware bowls

Soup ladle, if serving the soup from the tureen or casserole

Serves 4 to 6

Instructions

1. Melt the butter with the olive oil or peanut oil in a stockpot under moderate heat. Stir in the sliced onions. Cook slowly for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions become tender and translucent.

2. Raise the heat to moderately high and sprinkle in the sugar and salt. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onion slices shrink and caramelize to a deep amber-brown color.

3. Lower the heat to moderate, and blend in the flour. Cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes. Ladle 1/2 cup/120 mL hot beef stock to deglaze the bottom and sides of the stockpot. Pour in the rest of the hot beef stock and the white wine or dry white vermouth, and bring everything to a boil. Once the soup starts boiling, cover the stockpot partially and simmer for 30 minutes. Season the soup with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Set aside, if desired.

4. Preheat oven to 425°F/220°C while the soup is simmering.

5. Slice the bread into thin 1/2-inch/1.27-cm rounds. Place bread in one layer on a baking pan and toast the bread inside the middle of the oven until the bread dries and turns light brown.

6. Set the soup to simmer. Smear unsalted butter in the bottom of the tureen, casserole or individual earthenware bowls. Layer in slices of toasted bread. Spread coarsely grated Swiss cheese and freshly ground black pepper generously over the layer of toasted bread. Ladle in the hot onion soup and pour in Cognac, if desired. Top soup generously with grated Swiss cheese generously and a few fresh grinds of pepper to taste. Sprinkle the cheese over with 1 or 2 spoonfuls of melted butter.

7. Bake the tureen, casserole, or individual earthenware bowls in the middle of the oven for 20 to 30 minutes until the soup is bubbling and the top has turned golden brown. While the soup is baking, beat the egg yolks with Port or Madeira wine, if desired. Remove the soup from the oven. Lift a side of the cheese crust with a fork, and pour in spoonfuls of the optional egg yolk-wine mixture to the soup. Stir the soup gently under crust with a ladle.