French Onion Soup

As you all know, I love soup.
This one is wonderful for late winter - its warming and rich but something about it suggests spring is around the corner.

My recipe is a total classic, no fancy pants frills here!

Ingredients for four medium bowls:
Five onions. I used two french white onions, two sweet onions and one red onion.
Forty grams of butter,
Two fat cloves of garlic,
Five hundred ml of chicken stock,
A pinch of Demerara sugar (optional),
A pinch of flour
Balsamic vinegar
French baton
Gruyere cheese
Salt
White pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

Start off by chopping your onions. It's all about the onions.

Very finely dice three of them, finely slice one and roughly chop the last.

Put a large saucepan over a very low heat and melt the butter in it, add the onions, garlic and sugar if you are using it. Then leave them to caramelise for between forty five minutes to an hour, turning occasionally until they are very soft and golden.

Add a teaspoon of balsamic, and a shake of salt and pepper. Gradually pour in your stock and stir it in, along with some flour to thicken the soup. Turn up the heat and let the soup reduce a little.

While the soup is reducing, slice your baton into discs and pop under the grill with some olive oil and black pepper.

Finish the dish by pouring the soup into bowls and topping with the toasted bread and some grated gruyere cheese, then pop it under the grill.

Voila!

Hamilton