What I Am Eating Right Now

onion soup
Originally uploaded by Kit Pollard.

An awesomely crusty and cheesy onion soup gratinee, left over from dinner last night. I've been on such a soup kick this week, and yesterday I decided to keep it going, making onion soup from the recipe Jacques Pepin includes in his memoir, The Apprentice (sooo not related to Donald Trump.)

It's a super simple recipe, and tastes fantastic, especially the next day. I would highly recommend to anyone who likes salt, cheese or bread. And here it is:

Ingredients:

2 tbs. unsalted butter
3 onions (12 oz) thinly slicedAbout 7 cups good chicken and/or beef stock (I use about half and half)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
16 slices of bagette
3 cups grated Swiss cheese (Gruyere, Comte or Emmenthaler - I've used all 3 and they're all good)
I also added about 1/4 cup of vermouth

Melt the butter in a big saucepan and saute the sliced onions over medium high heat for about 8 minutes, or until they're lightly browned. Add the stock, vermouth, salt and pepper, and boil gently for 15 minutes (or a little longer, simmering).

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the bread slices in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until nicely browned. Divide the toast among four soup bowls and sprinkle 1/4 cup of cheese into each bowl. Place the bowls on a cookie sheet (preferably lined with foil).

When the stock and onions have cooked for 15 minutes, pour the soup into the bowls, filling each to the top. Sprinkle on the remainder of teh cheese, dividing it among the bowls and taking care not to push down into teh liquid. Press the cheese around the top of the rim of the bowls, so it adheres there as it cooks adn the crust doesn't fall into the liquid.

Bake soup for 35-45 minutes, until a "glorious brown, rich crust has developed on top." Serve it hot! And with bread...

P.S. I should also mention, here, how helpful Cooper's been with this blog. Mostly, he makes fun of me when I'm taking pictures in restaurants, but I can tell that he's actually very entertained by my food-blogging experiment. Last night, just before we started to eat, he said, "Shouldn't you be taking a picture of this?" and looked at me like I was a sixth-grader not doing my homework. And, of course, he was right.