French Onion Soup

This is an easy recipe. The hardest part of it is slicing the onions thinly enough. But when it's all done and you're ready to sit down and eat it, you're so glad you took the time to do it right. It's hearty, and delicious.

Ingredients:

• 4-5 large onions, very thinly sliced, (the slices do not have to be whole slices, just very thin)
• 4 Tbsp. butter
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 40 oz. beef broth (can be canned* or homemade)
• 1 Tbsp. dark sesame oil
• 1-2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 2-3 cups shredded Mozzarella Cheese (Low fat or Low Moisture is OK)
• 10-12 slices dry-toasted French bread (cut slightly smaller than tops of bowls)

*If condensed canned broth is used, be sure to count the water added as part of that 40 oz. Homemade is always best.

Directions:

Put Butter and olive oil in 6 qt Dutch oven. Heat. Add onions all at once.

Cook onions until they are nice and golden brown. Stir them to make
sure they are not burning or sticking to pot. Add the beef broth, sesame oil and soy sauce.

Bring just to a boil and simmer on low for 30-40 minutes.

Use a ladle and fill oven-proof soup bowls to 3/4 full. Top each soup bowl with toast cut to fit just slightly smaller than top of soup bowl, and sprinkle on cheese.

Some cheese might fall down into the soup. That's fine.

Use oven broiler to broil bowls of soup until cheese is all melted and running over the sides of bowl. Watch carefully so as not to burn.

Be careful when serving as it'll be pretty hot.

Place bowls on a salad or dinner plate that's been set up with more toast and maybe a bit of pretty garnish like a radish rose and a celery stick or 2.

Note: I set bowls in a biscuit pan which holds 3 bowls at the time. This way, I'm not having to handle each bowl individually in and out of the oven.

Source: My friend Etta in Knoxville, TN who made the best food of all.

By Julia from Boca Raton, FL

Answers:

French Onion Soup

This is like the most authentic French Onion Soup. There are several different cheeses that fit really good in onion soup, but my favorite is a wonderful stringy mozzerella with a bit of one of the sharper cheeses. You have hit the nail on the head with this recipe. I will add a sprinkle of parmesan to mine simply because that's what I have now. :-)

Thanks Pookarina. (05/21/2010)

By Michelle