French Onion Soup

I took A to meet my family for the first time a few years ago. We had 2 weeks planned and since it was his first time in Calgary we spent a few days travelling around, to give him more of an idea of what Canada was like. We headed into nearby Jasper and Banff, which are beautiful towns in the Rocky Mountains. As I grew up in the next province, and not in Calgary where all my family have moved to, it was nice to take him somewhere that resembled where I grew up. And I suffer major mountain withdrawal living here, so I needed to spend some time in the Rockies too.

While we were staying in Jasper we went out for dinner one evening and A ordered French Onion Soup. In my years working in kitchens I tried French Onion Soup maybe twice, and it was never good, so I decided I didn't like it.

Boy was that a mistake.

The soup A had (it was at The Keg, by the way) was so So SO good. I was blown away. How had I been missing out on this? Why had I never tried a nice bowl of French Onion Soup? My days of living without such yumminess were over. So of course I had to find a recipe so I could recreate this amazing-ness at home.I found this recipe and gave it a shot. I've tweaked it a bit to come up with a version I like. I've made this for guests, family at home and for myself and A a good bit. And everyone says its better than any they've had in a restaurant. I even get phone calls asking for my recipe from people in Canada that heard I had a good un. Its that awesome.

French Onion Soup (Adapted from allrecipes.com)

Serves 4

35g unsalted butter
460g sliced onions (I used 6 small-medium sized onions)
1200 ml beef broth
60ml sherry
2g dried thyme
4 slices bread, lightly toasted
cheese of your choice (recommended : Swiss)

Get everything together

See? Not too much. You can do this :)

Melt the butter in a pot and add the sliced onions. Cook them until they are nice and brown and caramelized and sweet and its difficult to not take the pot off the stove and just tuck in.

My-oh-my-this smells amazing!!

Add the beef broth, sherry and thyme to the onions. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Ok, this smells MORE amazing!

While the soup is simmering, get out the cute little dishes you bought when you discovered the beautifulness that is French Onion Soup ...

... and cut a few slices of the fresh loaf of bread you made and toast them ...

... then put some soup in the cute little dishes, pop a slice of bread on top and grate cheese over it all.

Throw these puppies under a grill until the cheese is melted and crispy around the edges...

Ok this isn't melted enough, but I couldn't stand it anymore.

I just had to tuck in. 

I'm ok with that. 

Maybe another time I'll be more patient. But it was pretty awesome anyway :)

Hope you try it soon!!

So whats a food thing you didn't like for ages then realized it was a missing love-of-your-life? ;)

Peace,

Jenn x