Onion soup is a traditional first course that is considered a real symbol of French cuisine. And the same as tomato soup in the USA, cabbage soup in Russia and tom yam in Thailand. But you can also provide a small corner of France at home by preparing a delicious soup.
To prepare a traditional Parisian onion soup, you will need the following ingredients - 5-6 medium-sized onions, 3-4 tablespoons. melted butter, 3 tablespoons wheat flour of the first grade, 5-6 glasses of pre-cooked vegetable or meat broth, 3-4 pieces of bay leaves, salt and black ground pepper, 1 glass of grated hard cheese and white bread croutons.
First, cut the main ingredient of the soup into large cubes and dip in a saucepan with preheated butter. Stir constantly and fry the vegetables until they are deep golden or even brownish. Then gradually pour the flour into the saucepan, but very slowly, stirring constantly, so that no lumps form in the saucepan. After that, pour all the broth, lavrushka, pepper and a little salt into the bowl, so the soup should cook for 30-35 minutes. At the end of this time, remove the bay leaf from the saucepan.
This ingredient will only mix in the finished soup, and in the future it is not needed, since it gave the dish its own smell.
Serve this dish poured into portioned cups, adding to each handful of crackers and about a quarter of grated cheese. But do not rush to immediately carry onion soup to the table. First, place the cups in a warm oven to melt the cheese completely. This dish is delicious!
In the suburbs of Paris, in real traditional restaurants and farmer's eateries, onion soup is prepared a little differently - with cream and in pots. You will need the following ingredients - a little (about 100-120 g) bacon, 2-3 onions, salt and pepper, 3-4 glasses of water (depending on the desired thickness of the dish), 200-300 g of white bread croutons, 150-200 g cheese, 6-8 tbsp. fat (25% better) cream.
Cut the lard into small pieces and fry in a saucepan until softened and fat release. After that, remove the cracklings from the dishes, put the onion, cut into thin half rings, into the saucepan, reduce the heat to low and simmer the ingredients until the vegetables turn into a homogeneous puree. Then add salt and pepper, cover the ingredients with water, bring the contents of the saucepan to a boil and reduce the heat to low. Then cook the soup for another 25-28 minutes.
Pour the semi-cooked onion soup into the pots, sprinkle the liquid with a handful of cheese, add 2 tablespoons of cream to each, top with the crackers and the resulting greaves. After that, put the pots in the oven at 160 ° C for 5-6 minutes so that the ingredients are thoroughly heated again and the cheese melted.
Also in France, its capital and in cities quite remote from Paris, a variety of versions of the traditional onion soup are prepared.
Some add pieces of chopped boiled chicken eggs, others - pieces of quail.
A very popular ingredient for this dish is also chopped celery root, pieces of feta cheese instead of hard cheese, cloves of garlic, which give the soup a known pungency and piquancy, and other ingredients to taste.
