French Onion Soup

The first tradition Ben and I created together was our NYE french onion soup. Our first New Year’s together Ben had bought himself “Matty Matheson A Cookbook” and our second foray into the book was testing out his french onion soup in hopes that it would cure whatever hangover we would incur the next day. It turned out incredibly, made us enough soup for the entire month of January and we’re so obsessed with it that we’ve made this french onion soup on New Year’s Eve every year since. We’ve changed some minor parts of the recipe mostly because of ingredient availability but the one thing I’ve learned over the years is that the key to this soup is the beef broth. It must be beef broth and it must be impeccable. We destroyed a batch one year by using chicken broth made from bouillon cubes. The recipe we’ve perfected over the years is as follows and we at West End Butcher & Deli will always ensure our house made beef broth is perfect for this soup ;)

Recipe 

5 LG white onions 

5 LG yellow onions 

5 LG red onions 

15 cipollini onions

15 shallots 

1 bag white pearl onions 

1 bag purple pearl onions

1 cup red wine

1 cup sherry or port 

5L beef stock 

I handful thyme 

2 bay leaves 

Salt & pepper to taste 

Butter 

Instructions 

1. Slice all large onions. In a large stock pot melt a big knob of butter on medium, add sliced onions and some kosher salt let the onions cook down, stirring occasionally. This will take a while, usually more than an hour. 

2. While you're waiting for the onions to cook down confit the pearl onions in vegetable or olive oil. This will allow you to pop them out of their skins by simply pushing them out between your finger and thumb. 

3. After a while, slice shallots and cippolinis and add them to the pot.

4. When the onions look brown, like an old mop, add the wine and sherry or port, turn up the heat and reduce it down by one third to a half. Then add bay leaves, thyme and beef stock. 

5. Bring to a boil, turn the heat down and let simmer for at least two hours. 

6. Ladle some soup into an oven safe bowl, put a slice of your favourite bread top and some of your favourite cheese on top of that. Turn the boiler on high and broil until the cheese is nicely melted. Enjoy!