French Onion Soup

Hearty, rich, warming, satisfying… I’m not a huge fan of soup normally but this is the exception. It’s got enough body for me, it feels like a meal and it also feels like a real treat.

Did you know that that in France it’s traditional to eat French onion soup in the early hours after the wedding party. We experienced this at the wedding of our great friends, Sylvie and Cyril.

To me French onion soup is all about skiing holidays, winter walks and my mum’s cooking. She would often make French Onion soup, we’d have it after mini rugby.

Method

1. Light your Egg and set it up for a direct cook at 140°C. You just need the stainless steel grid.
2. In a small dutch oven or Tefal Ingenio pan, melt the butter and put in the sliced onions.
3. Cook them for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want them to soften and just start to take some colour.
4. Add the plain flour and stir through. Cook this for a further 5 mins to cook out the flour. The onions will become a little gloupy.
5. Now add the wine and stir though. Simmer for 5 minutes to burn off the alcohol.
6. Add the stock, stir and leave to cook for about another 20 minutes. I leave the lid off the whole time as I like the soup to take on a little smokey flavour.
7. Take the soup off and set aside. Use your Egg to toast some chunky bread.
8. Ladle your soup into oven proof pots, one for each person.
9. When the bread is toasted, cut it to the shape of your pot and float it on the soup, it should form a lid.
10. Sprinkle over the grated Comte.
11. Turn you Egg up to 180° and then put your soup pots back into the Egg to melt the cheese and give it a tiny bit of colour.
12. Remove from the Egg using heat proof gloves and serve with a nice drop of wine!