It's Cold, Have Some Onion Soup.

Since It's not supposed to get abnormally warm anytime soon now is as good a time as any to get with making one of the cheapest and most delicious of the members of the Winter soup phylum: Onion Soup.

Making onion soup really couldn't be more retardedly simple.

First thing you'll need is onions, lots of onions.

I used 8 medium sized, cheapo yellow and red onions that I got from Food Bazaar for $1 a bag. A whole regular grocery store mesh bag's worth is about right. You can use all one kind if you want, I just thought that diversity of flavor couldn't be a bad thing.

Next you want to peel and slice the onions. I was planning on having a GGTV piece to accompany this post a la Julia Child's "Your Own Onion Soup" that was knife skill instruction but if you can't wait until mid-week you'll just have to get by with some general advice: Have a sharp knife, trim the ends and cut the onions into half moons as thin as you can. Now might be a good time for that cleaver purchase. The TFS #1 REALLY shines at this sort of bulk chopping work as you'll see later in the week.

Anyway, after your onions are in ribbons heat your biggest sauce pan with a good amount of butter and olive oil. A quarter cup and a a 1/4 stick is about right. Throw in your onions and let them sweat on medium.

After they have reduced to about 20% of what they once were you need to clear your mind and put aside anything that you needed to do for the next 10 or so minutes because you're going to crank the heat and stir. Move your gas to medium-high-ish and start moving the onions around. You want to get them nice and brown. Brown is flavor people.

Once your onions start to get nice and brown you want to add more butter and toss in 2-4 tablespoons of flour. Stir this up well and let it cook in. Take your time or your soup will taste like a fucking biscuit. That flour needs to cook the bready rawness out of it, about 5 minutes.

By this point your onions should be very small (compared to when you started) and very brown.

Next you want to deglaze the pan with some wine (white or red, not oaky tasting!) and get all the shit on the pan bottom into the liquid. Done? Good.

Now all you have to do is add enough stock to give the whole thing a nice consistency. NOT TOO THIN!

I mean, fuck people, it's just onions. Live a little and splurge on an extra bag of them instead of making it thin with stock.

Obviously homemade beef stock made from roasted marrow bones would be best but it was too cold to do anything or go anywhere so I used the boxed hippy stuff and bit of quickie stuff I made from the peels and ends. Choose your battles people. Being an ingredient freak all the time will kill you.

Now all you need to do is let it simmer until the flour from the onion pot thickens up the stock. At this point you could toast up some croutes by brushing olive oil on french bread chunks, pour in a tipple of Cognac and grate your Gruyere. I didn't toast and bread as I had no baguette or Cognac so I just poured in some bourbon and called it a day.

Purists would place it in crocks and bake in the oven but I find that technique to be overwrought, over-hot and too rich for even my blood. Just a little grated Swiss is a nice middle ground.

Eat, my bishes! Eat!