French Onion Soup and "Midnight in Paris"

It's been a chilly to start to November here in the north east but you won't hear me complain. One of my favorite things to make for dinner on a cold day is French onion soup. It's a comfort food for me, the savory broth, melted cheese, crispy bread, and the the sweet caramelized onions together are a flavorful and satisfying  combination. If you've never made this at home for yourself you might be surprised at how easy the dish is to make. A nice bowl of French onion soup, maybe a glass of dry red wine, and you'll fell like walking the streets of Paris at midnight. 

French Onion Soup - recipe serves 5-6

6 large onions sliced
6 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 cloves of chopped garlic
2 bay leaves
1 sprig of fresh thyme or a teaspoon of dried thyme leaves
1/2 cup of dry red wine (Use what you like to drink - I use Cabernet Sauvignon)
2 tablespoons of flour
3 14oz containers of beef broth
salt and pepper
12-15 thin slices of Swiss Cheese
1 crispy french baguette

Prep the onions by peeling and and slicing them. To slice them, cut the onions in half and then cut thin slices from the halves so they look like half moon shapes. It's going to look like a lot but trust me they will cook down. Add the butter and olive oil in a large soup pot and melt over a medium heat. Once the butter and oil have melted together, add the onions to the pot and stir them to make sure they're all covered with the butter and oil.

Cover and cook the onions over medium heat for about 10 to 15 minutes giving them a stir about half way through to make sure nothing is sticking. This step is allowing the onions to sweat, and just like when we sweat we release water and the onions will do the same thing. The onions will start to soften and there will be a fair amount of water in your pot. uncover and turn the heat down to low. Next, add the time....and I don't mean thyme I mean TIME!!

Time is the most important step in making French onion soup and there isn't a substitution for it. To properly caramelize onions you have to cook them low and slow for about an hour. After about an hour or so, the onions will turn very brown and you'll be shocked out how much they've reduced by. Turn the heat back up to medium and add the red wine, bay leaves, chopped garlic, and the thyme. Stir together and cook until the wine begins to reduce and sprinkle the flour over the onions.

You want to stir the onions constantly for a few minutes, about 3 to 5, so you cook off all the raw flour. Pour in the beef stock and bring the soup to boil. Once it's come to a boil reduce the heat back down to low and bring the soup to a simmer. In case you're not sure, when it's boiling you'll see bubbles rise to the surface where as a simmer you should only see a constant flow of steam rising from the pot. Allow the soup to simmer over the low heat for at least an hour.

After the soup has simmered, season with salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper and  taste it!! I'm not going to give you a set amount of salt to use here because it honestly depends. Caramelized onions can be sweet so you do need a fair amount of salt, I usually start with a teaspoon and go from there. It all depends on how sweet the onions you used were and to your taste preferences. I've made this soup more times than I can remember and I never seem to use the same amount of salt.

Preheat the broiler on your oven to high. Fish out the two bay leaves and the stem for the thyme if you used fresh. Ladle to soup into crocks or some other kind of heat proof mug or bowl. Float two or three slices of baguette on the surface and cover with the cheese. Put under the broiler and keep a close eye on it. Once the cheese has melted and turned golden brown in some areas carefully remove. I like to add some fresh chopped parsley or scallions on top if I have them on hand. Either way, serve the soup hot and dig in!

Sorry for the sub-par photographs in this post everyone. I did have a quite a few pictures to show you the process of caramelizing the onions and a nice shot of the final result. For some reason my memory card on my camera acted up and I had to re-format it which resulted in loosing the photos. My friend and I, who is quite the cook himself, always send each other pictures of our dinners via text messages so luckily I had at least these two on my phone to share with you all. Anyway, time for the movie of the week - Midnight In Paris.

Midnight in Paris is the 2011 movie written and directed by the great Woody Allen. Owen Wilson plays a young American writer named Gil who is on vacation to Paris with his fiance Inez (Rachael McAdams) and her parents. Currently a successful screenwriter, Gil's true desire is write novels like his idol, Ernest Hemmingway. Gil gets captured by Paris' charm and sees the magic of the city as the perfect place for he and Inez to move to so he can find the inspiration needed to finish his book. Inez fails to see the same aspects of the city and she can't get back to Beverly Hills soon enough. One night after dinner, Gil passes on the invite from Inez's friends to go dancing and decides to walk alone back to their hotel. Unfamiliar with the city and a few glasses of champagne, Gil looses his way but in the same sense might have found what he's looking for. At the stroke of midnight, Gil somehow finds himself transported back to the 1920's when Paris was home to some the greatest writers, musicians, and artists the world has ever known. Midnight in Paris is a very charming film and one I think you'll all enjoy.