Pams Easy French Onion Soup Recipes

RICH AND SIMPLE FRENCH ONION SOUP

Steps:

• Melt butter with olive oil in an 8 quart stock pot on medium heat. Add onions and continually stir until tender and translucent. Do not brown the onions.
• Add beef broth, sherry and thyme. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer for 30 minutes.
• Heat the oven broiler.
• Ladle soup into oven safe serving bowls and place one slice of bread on top of each (bread may be broken into pieces if you prefer). Layer each slice of bread with a slice of provolone, 1/2 slice diced Swiss and 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese. Place bowls on cookie sheet and broil in the preheated oven until cheese bubbles and browns slightly.

THE BEST FRENCH ONION SOUP

Steps:

• Melt the butter in a very large Dutch oven or pot over medium heat. Add the onions, bay leaves, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and a few grinds black pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are very soft and light golden-brown, about 1 hour. (The onions will begin to stick to the bottom of the pan and turn brown after about 30 minutes; just keep scraping them up and stirring them into the rest of the onions. If they are browning to quickly, lower the heat.)
• Add the wine to the pot, bring to a simmer and cook until it has almost completely evaporated, about 4 minutes. Add the beef broth and 1 cup of water, bring to a simmer and cook until the flavors come together and the soup is rich, about 45 minutes. Remove the bay leaves. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Keep the soup warm on a low burner or cool completely and refrigerate to reheat later. (The soup can be refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 1 month.)
• Preheat the broiler. Place four soup crocks on a rimmed baking sheet and fill them about 3/4 of the way with hot soup. Float a slice of baguette on top of each and cover with 1/2 cup Gruyere. Broil until the Gruyere is golden brown (don't be alarmed if some soup bubbles out), 2 to 3 minutes.

PAM'S EASY FRENCH ONION SOUP

Steps:

• Peel and cut off root and top of onions. Cut in half from pole to pole (top to bottom) then place onion half flat side down and cut about 1/4 inch thick slices (also from top to bottom with the grain of the onion). Cutting the onions this way will aid in keeping the onions from breaking down to mush as they carmelize. This will be quite a large pile of onion slivers.
• In a large diameter, deep frying pan or Dutch oven, melt butter and add oil, heat on medium high to slightly brown the butter. Wide pans make it easier to get good carmelization faster. As soon as the butter is slightly brown, put in all the onion slices, thyme and bay leaf and stir to coat with the oil. Turn heat down to medium and pat onions down to get contact with the pan. Check browning after 5 and 10 minutes to determine how long to let it brown between stirring. Set timer for however many minutes you determine and let the onion slivers brown, returning to stir and bring the carmelized part to the top, reset timer and keep stirring and checking until a brown residue is covering the bottom of the pan. (BROWN, NOT BLACK) Add about 1/2 cup of broth to pan, stir until all broth is evaporated (deglaze the pan), and then set timer and stir again until the residue forms again. Turn heat down if it is browning too quickly. Deglaze two more times with broth, letting onions get deeply red brown. When dark brown, remove the pan from the heat (to avoid a flare up), and do a final deglaze with the sherry. Return pan to heat to let it evaporate almost completely.
• Remove the bay leaf and then add all the remaining broth and seasonings. Simmer soup for 15 to 30 minutes, taste and adjust salt and pepper.
• To serve, fill either broiler proof ramekins/soup mugs about 2/3 full of hot soup, toast baguette and sprinkle with Gruyere chees to cover then float toast on top of soup and slip under the broiler for a few minutes until cheese melts and browns slightly. Serve OR dish up a bowl full of soup and serve with grilled Swiss cheese sandwiches.