Soupe d’onions

Jasper still dreams of the onion soup at La Procope. So in the series ‘Paris me marque’, here is a great recipe.

foto: Sheila Struyck

This is a great method to make onionsoup, without tears cutting gun the onions and with a nice sweet flavour in the home. Based on Nigel Slater’s method in the kitchen diaries. You use some humble ingredients of course and a bit of time or let it all simmer and caramelise.

Ingredients (for 4)

• 5 sweet onions (cevennes for instance)

• 1 liter beef stock (or fond to make the equivalent)

• 75 ml dry sherry

• 1 bayleaf

• slices of stale bread

• 75 gr gruyere

• 50 gr butter (or olive oil)

• (Star-anis) vinegar

Method

Preheat oven at 200 degrees C. Cut the onions length wise in two. Remove the skin (easier when cut in half) and the bottom and top (so basically the layers are not connected anymore). Cover base of pan (that can go in oven and on fire) snuggly. Add butter and pinch of salt

Roast in oven at 180 degrees until charred and soft (shake or turn a couple of times, avoiding to burn hands on hot handle). Take onions and cut them in smaller pieces. (Remove very charred pieces, but keep some of the burnt ones for the colour).

Put back in pan, add the sherry. Bring to boil to evaporate the alcohol and deglaze the pan. Add the stock and bayleaf and simmer for twenty minutes.

Taste seasoning. Add black pepper and 3 drops of vinegar (I used balsamic with star-anis).

Toast the bread on both sides, put the soup in hot bowls, drop in the bread and generously cover with grated gruyere. Bon appetit.