I love a good French onion soup filled with slithery sliced of deeply caramelized onions and flavorful broth sharpened up by a splash of white wine and soup-sodded toasts of baguette and plenty of aged gruyere melted on top.
I am alone in this love, at least at my house. The soup will get eaten, but no one else will be terribly excited about it. But a crisp chill has hit the air here in San Francisco, and warming soup was what I craved.
Working on the age-old combination of apples and onions (and the contents of our larder), I switched up the al-kee-hol in this soup – using hard apple cider instead of white wine – and was charmed by the sweet note it added. The rest of the household was thrilled. We also had little whole grain toasts topped with a cheese that is a lot like Camembert (the name was thrown out with the wrapper but it was sitting the fridge whereas gruyere was not) floating on the soup, which was a lovely combination (any soft, bloomy-rind cheese would be yummy). Next time I would take it one step further and use rye bread for the toasts – the sweetness of the soup can handle that extra flavor.
Note: Be sure to use a very dry apple cider. Some pear ciders are even drier and would work great too. This soup has a sweetness to it even with a bone-dry cider.
Cider onion soup
Peel and thinly slice 2 1/2 pounds onions. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a medium or large heavy soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring, until onions soften up. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring when you think of it and adjusting heat so onions are cooking but not at all browning, until onions caramelize and turn all deeply amber from the inside and taste almost like candy they’re so sweet. Be patient, this process takes awhile – at least 40 minutes and up to an hour. Add 1 cup hard apple cider and bring to a boil. Add about 3 cups vegetable or chicken stock (I’m guessing plain water would work fine too) and bring to a boil. Add a couple sprigs of fresh thyme, if you’re so inclined, reduce heat, and simmer soup for 10 to 15 minutes. Taste and add more salt if you must.
Toast slices of whole wheat, rye, or other whole grain bread, then top those toasts with slices of bloomy-rind cheese like Brie or Camembert. You can float these as-is in the soup (the heat from the toast and the soup will gently melt the cheese) or broil these toasts to give the cheese a head-start. Some people will want freshly ground black pepper in their soup; some people will not. I found the sweet, peppery, cheesy combination divine.
ohh… one more recipe « lorigami | 30-Oct-09 at 12:41 pm | Permalink
[...] October 30, 2009 ohh… one more recipe Posted by lorigami under cooking Leave a Comment I really love French Onion Soup. I mean really. LOVE. So when I ran across this recipe in my reader this morning, I had to add it to the list of things to cook soon. The Dinner Files French Onion Soup [...]
sarah henry | 31-Oct-09 at 7:43 am | Permalink
Molly,
Just last night had French onion soup served by friends for the first time in, oh, a hundred years. Forgot how truly delish it can be. Their version was really thick and stew-like. It had red wine with the ol’ apple cider, sans al-kee-hol…but I’m betting your version gives the soup a nice little kick.
Friday Links: Camembert « Mmm, Cheese! | 08-Jan-10 at 7:08 am | Permalink
[...] Cider Onion Soup [with Camembert toasts] (The Dinner Files) [...]
Autumn Almanac 2009 « Cyder with Eloise | 24-Jan-10 at 8:10 am | Permalink
[...] Onion soup can be enjoyed at any time of year but I like this recipe from Molly Watson of The Dinner Files as she has used cider to make this soup a particularly autumn [...]