French Onion Soup from Scratch!

Welcome everyone to another episode of Nikoli's Kitchen! I am so sorry for the lateness of this week's episode but unfortunately editing day was a really tough day for me and I couldn't get it out in time. Please enjoy this week's episode talking all things French Onion Soup and the importance of patience. Thank you all so much for coming on this journey with me.

Mentioned in the show, please check out Ann Reardon at https://www.youtube.com/user/howtocookthat and check out Yoga with Adriene at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFKE7WVJfvaHW5q283SxchA!

Please check out Stories of Yore and Yours (soon to be Ink & Ash) by Shawn Ennis at https://link.chtbl.com/syypodcast.

Featured Recipe Timecodes

22:00 - Intro
23:02 - Step One (Ingredients & Prep)
24:09 - Step Two (Cooking the Onions)
25:21 - Step Three (Making your Soup Base & Reducing)
29:02 - Step Four (Crostinis & Baking)
29:53 - Step Five (Finishing in the Oven)

 

Featured Recipe for this Episode

2 lbs of red onions, halved and chopped
3 lbs of sweet yellow onions, halved and chopped
3/4 cup of herbed butter
Salt
Fresh cracked black pepper
6 cups of red wine
10 cups beef broth (I made my broth with "Better than Bouillon" beef stock base)
1 T cornstarch
Aromatics to add during reduction phase (if desired)

Add herbed butter to a large stock pot or dutch oven on medium-low heat and allow to melt.
Add your onions and stir until well-coated. Cook for 15 minutes, covered. Sprinkle some salt over the onions as they get going to start sweating them.
Add half of the wine, salt and a good amount of fresh cracked black pepper.  
Return to the stove, un-covered, and cook at mid-low for 20-30 minutes or until the liquid is gone.
Add the remainder of your wine and continue cooking until the liquid is reduced again. The onions should be soft and jammy at this point with a rich, earthy flavor.
Add cornstarch. Stir until incorporated and cook for a minute or two. 
Add beef broth. If you want to add any additional aromatics or herbs, add them here too. 

Partially cover the pan and cook for 2-3 hours on medium-low heat. The soup should be gently simmering. If it's not, slowly bump your heat up until it is. Not all stoves are created equal, and sometimes the pot you're using makes the difference. You want to continue reducing this until your broth reaches the flavor/consistency you want. Make sure your onions don't go too far either.

Remove any aromatics/herb bundles/etc you added. 
Season the soup to taste here. Now you'll need-

Soup cocottes (as many as you have people to serve)
A large loaf of French bread/baguette
Shredded gruyere cheese

Slice your French bread in 3/4" thick slices. Cut enough slices to fill the top of the cocottes (my baguette took 3 slices per). Butter both sides and toast under the broiler on each side for a couple minutes. 
Turn your oven to 350 degrees.
Ladle your soup into the cocottes.
Add crostinis to the cocottes.
Cover the top of each crock generously with shredded gruyere cheese (you can also add a nice slice of mozzarella on top as well, I didn't put an amount for cheese as it depends how many of these you're making).

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese is thoroughly melted. 
Turn the broiler on and brown the cheese.

Remove from the oven and serve.

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Credits

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