French Onion Soup

Oh blog how I have missed you. I have not been a very conscientious blogger over the past month and for that I apologize. It seemed like every time I sat down to work on the blog something came up or I fell asleep waiting for my ancient laptop to boot up. I also haven't been cooking too many wonderful blog-worthy dishes lately but I promise that is going to change. This recipe was created for my mom's birthday last month. She loves French onion soup and it was actually her "craving"  all through her pregnancy with me. She tells me that she used to have it for lunch everyday while she was pregnant. I recently told that story to someone and they commented that I must love onions after all that soup. Interestingly enough, I do love onions now but I didn't really care for them as a child. It is only as an adult that my love and appreciation for the onion has flourished. Now onions are used in a daily basis in my kitchen. I would say more times than not onion makes an appearance in our dinner.

I wanted to try and recreate the classic restaurant style soup for my mom's birthday dinner and I searched high and low for a recipe but couldn't find just one that I liked so I took a few and combined them into one. I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe, Ina Garten's from her How Easy is That? book and a recipe from The Williams Sonoma Collection:  Soup book for inspiration and came out with what I think is a pretty darn good French onion soup. I tested it out on my husband, brother and cousin about two weeks before the birthday dinner and it got good reviews from all of them so I replicated the recipe again for mom's birthday and it came out just as good. Just writing this post makes me want to make it again very soon! Keep in mind that is a little time consuming, not necessarily a quick weeknight meal. Although you can make a big pot of it on the weekend and just not add the bread and cheese. Then during the week just reheat it and broil it just before serving. We did this with the leftovers and they were great the next day.

French Onion Soup
From Colleen's Kitchen Therapy

Ingredients:
3 lbs yellow onions, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp granulated sugar
3/4 cup brandy
1 1/2 cups good dry white wine
8 cups low sodium beef broth
Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

8-10 1 inch thick slices of french bread, toasted
1.5 - 2 cups Gruyere & Gouda cheese, shredded

Directions:
Melt the butter and oil together in the bottom of a 5 quart dutch oven over moderately low heat. Add the onions, toss to coat them in oil and cover the pot. Reduce the heat to low and let them slowly steep for 15 minutes.

Uncover the pot, add the sugar and raise the heat to medium-high. Cook for 40-45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions turn golden brown.

Add the brandy, stir to loosen any brown bits in the bottom of the pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the white wine and simmer for 15 more minutes. Add in the beef broth and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary.

Preheat the broiler with a rack 5 inches below the heating element. Ladle the soup into oven safe bowls. Top each both with a piece of the toasted bread and a heaping mound of the cheese mixture. Broil for 3 to 5 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve immediately.