FRENCH ONION SOUP IS SIMPLY LIQUID COMFORT

There is nothing better than a rainy, cold weekend day, to stay in your PJ's all day and cook an aromatic savory soup, and particularly for me, if it takes hours from start to finish to complete.

The aroma of onions cooking down for an hour or so, before you add the homemade stock, which slowly simmers for another 2 hours, all the while you're binge watching your favorite Netflix series, in my case, "food porn", ie.... multible cooking series.

Now add the aroma of homemade bread, a beautiful French, Italian or Sour Dough loaf..........does it get any better than this?  I don't think so.

For those that don't want to go to the trouble of making you own stock or bread, there are grocery stores, it's just not as much fun.

Then at the end of the day, after you grated your cheese, and toasted a big thick piece of bread and rubbed garlic on each side, poured the soup in your cup, added the bread and cheese on top of the soup and baked in the oven, there simply is no greater comfort.......I promise.  The bubbling cheese and soup is more than I can take.

Per my initial posting, I said that I cook every recipe three times before I serve to anyone, in this case, this is my go to recipe for rainy, cold days.  Thus over the course of time I have tweeked the recipe for my taste, hopefully my quest likes it as much as I do.  I will give you the straight ingrediants and then if you wish, I listed my "LSS" ITEMS (LSS = Little Some'm Some'm) that you can explore with.

CLASSIC FRENCH ONION SOUP

• 4 or 5 tbsp of unsalted butter
• 2 1/2 to 3 lbs of yellow onions, sliced thinly
• "LSS" ITEM - 2 or 3 anchovies (optional, but don't turn your nose up yet, they make a difference and are not fishy once cooked with onions)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 2 tsp of salt, perferably kosher salt or sea salt
• 2 tsp of freshly ground pepper (more at the end if necessary)
• 2 tsp of AP flour
• 3/4 c of white wine or sherry - "LSS" ITEM, I use 1/2 sherry and 1/2 tawny port
• 2 qts chicken stock - NOTE Some will use beef stock, I like the chicken stock better
• 2 tbsp of sherry vinegar or balsamic vinegar, you might want to add some more at the end as well
• "LSS" ITEM - Squeeze a lemon
• Thick slices of hearty white bread, French or Italian and day old is the best, toasted with garlic rubbed across it
• 2 or 3 garlic gloves, peeled and left in tack for rubbing on the toast
• Grated Gruyere cheese to cover the bread and bowl

Serves 6 (or 4 if you are selfish like me)

1. Melt butter in Dutch oven or large stock pan over medium heat.  Add onions and "LSS" anchovies and sugar.  Cook mixture until onions are transluscent, 25 to 30 minutes.  Stir occasionally thru this process.
2. Add garlic, salt and pepper and cook onion mixture for 1 1/2 hours.  Don't stir as much and cook at medium to low heat, anything more and the mixture will burn badly, trust me I know from experience.  However the brown bits that this process creates, are ambrosia when scrapped off the bottom into the onion mixture.  The onions will have collapsed into brown carmilized pile.
3. Add the flour and stir continuously for 1 minute, then add the sherry and deglaze the pan, remember brown bits are good and add flavor, scrap them all up.  Add the stock, bring to a boil, decrease to a simmer and cook for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, slow and easy.  Turn off the heat and add the vinegar and lemon.  You may need more pepper, vinegar or lemon to taste at this point.  Let is sit and take in the aroma.
4. Preheat oven at 400 deg and set ovenproof bowls on a sheet pan lined with foil or parchment paper.
5. Toast bread and once out of the hot oven, rub garlic on both sides.
6. Ladle soup into the bowls, set toast on top of soup, sprinkle with ample grated cheese and into the over for 20 minutes or so, until the cheese is melted and browning.  Serve right away and enjoy my friends!

BON APPETIT!