French Onion Soup for Two

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day yesterday. We certainly did. There were homemade cards, a bouquet of flower & champagne. For dinner, I made Matt French Onion Soup, a soup he loves but I just never make. I don't know why since it's so easy to make &, other than the time it takes for the onions to cook, comes together really quickly.

This is not exactly a traditional French onion soup as I didn't use beef broth. We aren't huge fans of beef broth, there is just something about the flavor, so, I decided to go with chicken stock instead. Also, we have a freezer full of homemade chicken stock. We thought the end result was just as good as any version we've had made with beef broth. The other main change I made to the original recipe was to add some malt vinegar. I think just a little bit of it helped cut through some of the sweetness of the slow cooked onions.

Topped with toasted bread & melted cheese it's a little bit of heaven in a bowl.

French Onion Soup for Two
(adapted from The Big Book of Soups and Stews)

1 T butter
1 lb, white or yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 t white sugar
3 c chicken stock or broth
1 1/2 t worcestershire sauce
1 t malt vinegar
2 T red wine (a good excuse to open a bottle to drink with dinner)
1 bay leaf
pinch of dried thyme
salt & fresh pepper to taste
petite baguette, cut into 1/2 - 3/4 inch slices
grated gruyere

In a heavy soup pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic & stir well. Turn heat to low, cover & let cook for 15 minutes. Remove the lid, stir in sugar. Continue to cook uncovered on low, stirring from time to time, until the onions are very tender & light brown, about an 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

Add the stock, worcestershire, vinegar, wine, bay leaf, thyme, salt & pepper. Bring to a simmer. Let simmer for 20 minutes.

You can prepare the cheese bread for the top two ways.

This version works well if you don't want to out your soup bowls in the broiler. Put the sliced bread on a baking sheet & broiled one side until crisp. Then we turned the slices over topped with the cheese & returned to the broiler until bubbly. Place the cheese bread on top of the soup.

Or you can put the soup in ovenproof bowls, top with bread slices & cheese. Put the whole thing in the broiler until the cheese is bubbly.

Makes 2 servings

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