ISO: La Vielle Maison Onion Soup via Ruth Reichl

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traca

Well-known member
Trolling for recipes I came across this from Ruth Reichl's Comfort Me with Apples book. The beauty here is there's no need to caramelize the onions on the stovetop. All the work is done in the oven, baked.

La Veille Maison Soup

Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl

Serves 4

Robert Charles was very proud of this recipe. No wonder. Once you've tried his variation on the classic French onion soup, you'll never go back to the original.

1/2 stick (1/4 cup unsalted butter)

6 large onions, (about 3 1/2 pounds), chopped

4 large garlic cloves, chopped

salt and pepper

1 teaspoon all-purpose flour

2 cups dry white wine

4 cups chicken broth

1 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled

4 large eggs

1/4 pound Gruyere cheese, grated

1/4 vup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F

Metl the butter over moderately high heat in a heavy, ovenproof 8-quart pot until the foam subsides. Cook the onion and garlic in the butter, adding aslt and pepper to taste and stirring, until onion is softened. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the wine, broth and thyme and cook the soup at a low boil, uncovered, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. Cover the pot and bake in the middle of the oven for 2 hours.

Ladle the soup into 4 individual earthenware crocks or oven-proof bowls (about 1 1/2 cup capacity) and whisk an egg into each. Sprinkle the tops with cheese and bake in the middle of the oven until the cheese is melted, about 10 minutes. Remove the crocks from the oven and spoon 1 tablespoon cream over each serving.

 
Thanks, Traca. What an interesting variation.

I always thought Julia Child's French Onion Soup was the gold standard, but I'll have to try this.
By the way, I'm glad that your typing is just like mine! I never did metl butter before. And a vup of cream must be a generous amount!
Thanks for posting the recipe. It sounds great.

 
guess what, Sara Moulton is in Anchorage for a book signing and cooking class Sat.

I hope to make it there.

 
You beat me to it....

I was going to ask if I could halve the amount of cream, 1 vup seemed pretty excessive to me!

 
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