French Onion Soup Au Gratin

UPDATE: Hello there. I’m begging for your patience. This post was published two days ago but wasn’t delivered to my subscribers. I’m re-posting today in the hope that it lands soundly in your in-box. Moving this site has not been without it’s challenges. I’ve been talked off the ledge several times this week! I’d be so grateful, if you’d let me know, whether you receive this post via e-mail. Thanks so much!

It’s hard to believe that in a couple of months “bite” will be celebrating it’s third anniversary. Hard and not hard. Remembering the hours I spent trying to maneuver my way around the world of cyber space is still embarrassingly vivid! Unlike my children, I didn’t exit the womb with duel thumb dexterity. Let me not forget to mention my plunge into the world of photography. F-stops, shutterspeed, white balance – ugh – I spent half my time Google searching word definitions! Still, I have LOVED every, incredibly frustrating, exciting moment. And with that – I’m leaving.

If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you know I’ve made a couple of attempts to leave the Wordpress.com platform unsuccessfully. Ha! – you didn’t think I was done with blogging… After 430 posts and over 1.7 million views, I decided it was time to make the move for real. I hired blend88.com and the rest is history!

Here I am. Happily independent and ready to continue my journey. Independent is a little misleading. I’ve had amazing technical support from my dad, my girls, my uncle Joe, Christie, Judith, Robert, Kelly, and Jeff. You guys have no idea how much you teach me every time we have a chat. There’s a reason I’m always so willing to cook for you! xo

If you subscribe to “bite” via email notification, hopefully, nothing will change. Every time I post, it should land in your in-box. If you follow me as a fellow WordPress blogger, I’ll no longer show up in your blog feed… If you’d like to stay in touch you can choose to follow me by clicking on this link and pressing the “subscribe” button on my blog page. Part of my move involved Blend88 creating a new home page. I LOVE it… Great big food photos scrolling across the page and a category slider bar at the bottom. I feel so grown-up!

As I’m writing this post, winter continues to rage. I can hardly see the house across the street due to the snowfall. That can only mean one thing – you guessed it! Time for a steaming, cheesy bowl of French onion soup. This is my mom’s recipe. Don’t be put off by the recipe’s simplicity. In my humble opinion, it’s the BEST onion soup on the planet.

French Onion Soup Au Gratin – my mom’s recipe
Serves 8

3 lbs yellow onions, peeled and sliced thinly
¾ cup butter
½ cup flour, sifted
1 bay leaf
1 cup dry white wine
8 cups beef stock
8 thick slices stale French baguette
Lots of shredded Emmantel cheese – you can use Gruyere

THE STEPS:

Place a large stock pot over medium low heat and melt butter
When butter is foaming add sliced onions
Sauté slowly for 1 hour, stirring often
Sprinkle sifted flour over onions and mix in toughly
Allow flour to cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly
Add white wine, mix well
Add beef stock and bay leaf
Simmer for ½ hour
Place your serving bowls on a baking sheet
Ladle soup into serving bowls
Place a slice of baguette on top of each bowl of soup
Cover generously with shredded cheese
Place baking sheet with soup bowls under broiler until the cheese is golden and melted
Serve immediately

THE LOVE: I’ve suffered through way too many bowls of insipid, watery onion soup. I can’t seem to resist the urge to order French Onion Soup when I see it on a menu. Hot oozy cheese is irresistible to me. The cheesy bread is rarely the problem. It’s the soup! The secret is the long slow reduction of the onions. The onions are ready to be made into soup once they’ve been reduced to a third of their original volume. To do that without scorching them takes times. If you follow this one little trick, I promise your onion soup will be spectacular!