First, early in the spring till your onion bed and plant your onions. I like the plants from Johnny's Seeds. Onions need even watering so set up some kind of drip system and water regularly. Hey, you think I'm kidding! I grew these beauties. Not in Farmville either.
When I make onion soup I make a huge batch and freeze a bunch because, if you don't have all day to hang around, don't even try this. I burned my first batch and learned my lesson. You want to use white or yellow onions. Never ever red or sweet onions. You cut the ends off and then cut them in half, pole to pole. Then slice them also pole to pole. This helps them keep their shape and not turn to mush. They will turn to mush while you cook them down but come back to their nice half moon shape later when you add broth. I probably took ten pounds of these, as many as will fit into my heavy cast iron oven pot.
When you start slicing, put your ipod on and listen to a good book. I had The Girl Who Played With Fire, near the end when you really want to find out what's going to happen.
Heat your oven to 400F and mush some sweet butter unsalted, around the pot. A couple of tablespoons. Pile all the onions in and put the pot in the oven for an hour. Listen to some more book. At the end of the hour, take the pot out, stir everything around and put the pot back in. In one and a half more hours, take it out again. If the onions are nice and cooked and golden colored then you're done with that part. Turn the oven off.
This is how it should look after the two and a half hours of baking. Now you're ready for the part when you really have to pay attention. Put the pot on the stove on medium high heat. Cook the onions until the liquid is gone, this will take at least twenty minutes depending on how big a batch you are making. Then, have a quarter cup of cold water ready. This is the step where you can ruin everything if you don't pay attention. Cook the onions some more until a brown crust develops on the bottom of the pot. This is the good stuff. Add in the water and scrap up the brown stuff into the mix. (it's called fond in chef terms). Do it again, cooking the onions until there is crust and adding water. Do it a couple more times until you have a nice brown mass of mushy onions. That taste delicious.
This is all that is left of all those onions. All that work, growing and weeding and peeling. Yup. When you have cooked the onions as much as you want, add in half a cup of dry sherry and let it cook for about five minutes. Then add in about four cups of chicken broth, low salt, and two cups of beef broth, also low salt. And two cups of water. If you use too much salt you will not be able to fix this. Add one or two bay leaves and a bundle of fresh thyme tied with string (so you can fish it out later). Let simmer for about half an hour.
I like to wait until the next day to serve it. The flavors have met, been introduced but they really need an all night party to get to know each other. Then you do the French Onion Soup thing with a slice of french bread toast and gruyere cheese grated on top. Stick under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly and your friends will think you are a real chef. This soup freezes well and I always make a huge batch because it takes so much time.
