Les Halles French Onion
Soup Recipe
Gratinée des
Halles
(Classic Onion
Soup)
Serves
8
Ingredients:
6 ounces/168 g
butter
8 large
Spanish onions thinly sliced
2 ounces/56 ml
port
2 ounces 56 ml
balsamic vinegar
2 quarts/2.2 liters
dark chicken stock
4 ounces/112 g
slab bacon, cut in ½ inch/1cm cubes
1
bouquet garni
Salt and
pepper
16
baguette croutons sliced and toasted in the oven with a little olive oil
12 ounces/340 g
grated Gruyère cheese
Equipment:
Large, heavy bottomed
pot
Wooden
spoon
Ladle
8 oven proof soup
crocks
Propane torch
(optional)
Prepare the
Broth:
In the large pot, heat the
butter over medium heat until it is melted and begins to brown. Add the onions and cook over medium heat,
stirring occasionally, until they are soft and browned (about 20 minutes). Onion soup, unsurprisingly, is all
about the onions. Make damn sure the onions are a nice, dark, even brown color.
Increase the heat to
medium high and stir in the port and the vinegar, scraping all that brown goodness from the bottom of the pot
into the liquid. Add the chicken stock. Add the bacon and bouquet garni and bring to a
boil.
Reduce to simmer, season
with salt and pepper, and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, skimming any foam off the top with the ladle.
Remove the bouquet garni.
The Croutons and
Cheese:
When the soup is finished
cooking, ladle it into the individual crocks. Float two croutons side by side on top of each. Spread a
generous, even heaping amount of cheese over the top of the soup. You want some extra to hang over the edges,
as the crispy, near-burnt stuff that sticks to the outer sides of the crocks once it comes out from under the
heat is often the best part.
Place each crock under a
preheated, rip-roaring broiler until the cheese melts, bubbles, browns, and even scorches slightly in spots.
The finished cheese should be a panorama of molten brown hues ranging from golden brown to dark brown to a
few black spots where the cheese blistered and burned. Serve immediately – and carefully. You don’t know pain
until you’ve spilled one of these things in your lap.
If your broiler is too
small or too weak to pull this off, you can try it in a preheated 425F/220C oven until melted. A nice
optional move: Once the mound of grated cheese starts to flatten out in the oven, remove each crock and, with
a propane torch, blast the cheese until you get the colors you want.
Half–Assed
Alternative
Your broiler sucks. Your
oven isn’t much better. Can’t find those ovenproof crocks anywhere. And you ain’t ponying up for a damn
propane torch, ‘cause your kid’s got pyromaniac tendencies. You can simply toast cheese over the croutons on
a sheet pan, and float them as garnish on the soup. Not exactly classic – but still
good.
NOTE ON THE
PROPANE TORCH
This is a very
handy – dandy piece of equipment, especially if your stove is not the greatest. Nearly all professional
kitchens have them; they’re not very expensive and they can be used for a variety of sneaky tasks, such as
easily caramelizing the top of crème brulée or toasting meringues. •
Courtesy: Les
Halles
