The French are famous for their culinary expertise - fine dining restaurants with kitchens run by flamboyant and egotistical chefs, the food served at perfectly made tables.
I love french cuisine but i've never been one for the classic white tableclothed restaurant, I'm too messy an eater. So while scoffing a bowl of French onion soup, splattering lovely broth around the bowl it got me thinking, something didn't add up. French cooking and loose sloppy onions, white tablecloths and uncontrollable mess, how did this unsophisticated dish become part of such a refined cuisine?
It appears that this beautifully rich and indulgent soup was not part of classic French cooking but in the 18th Century was typical peasant food, for the lower classes, made from just a few easily accessible and cheap ingredients.
The dish shows just how naturally skilled in the art of cooking the French nation is, if even the most poor, down trodden and desperate of their nation had to struggle by on something so god damn delicious
Ingredients - Serves 4
1kg brown onions, peeled and thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
50g butter
Tbsp dried thyme
Tsp granulated sugar
1.5 litres of beef stock
1/2 tsp of Marmite (optional)
Small glass of dry white wine
2 tbsp brandy
For the croutons -
French baguette
Gruyere cheese
- Melt the butter in a large pan.
- Add the onions and fry on high for approx 10 mins.
- Add the garlic and thyme and continue to fry for 5 mins before turning the heat down to medium.
- Cook slowly for approx 30 mins until the onions are browned and looking rich and sticky
- Pour over the wine and stir to release all the tasty bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Add the stock and Marmite, if using, and bring to the boil.
- Turn down to allow to simmer, lidless, for around an hour.
- Stir through the brandy once the soup has reduced and is nice and rich and cook for another few minutes
- Slice the baguette into approx 1 and a half inch slices and grill on one side until lightly browned.
- Turn the bread over, top with a little cheese and pepper and grill until the cheese is melted and golden.
- Serve the soup in bowls topped with a couple of gruyere croutons.
