French Onion Soup

It's taken awhile to get here, but it's finally autumn in Chicago (no doubt soon to be followed by months of blistering winter). Anyway, everyone knows autumn is soup season, so I have a couple of soup posts to share. This is probably my favorite soup, and though it calls for beef broth, I know I made it with vegetable broth when EW was my roommate. And, if you have a food processor, this soup is actually really easy to make.

This is my mom's recipe, which she says she got at Famous Barr when she and my dad were first married. Still delicious even 40 years later. And, to be fair, someone else deserves credit for this post since she has made this soup much more recently than I have, and in the process she came up with a must try technique for all of us. Keep reading ;)

Ingredients:
- 5 pounds thinly sliced onions
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
- 2 tablespoons Hungarian paprika
- 1 bay leaf
- 3/4 cup flour
- 3 quarts beef broth
- 1 cup win (Sherry)
- Crusty French Bread
- Gruyere

Instructions:
1. Slice onion thinly in a food processor.

So, right here at step 1 is where our friend's secret technique comes in handy. Chopping onions makes you cry. It even made my cat cry when I was chopping onions recently. That is, unless you do this:


If you don't have any use for swim goggles but appropriately think this idea is genius (as you should), consider these.

2. Melt Butter in a large stock pot and add onions.
3. Sweat the onion over a low heat for a 1 ½ hours.
4. Add all the other ingredients except the beef stock to the onions.
5. Cook for about 10 minutes over low heat stirring to keep from burning. This is to keep the flour from lumping.
6. Add beef stock. Cook for 2 hours over low heat.

Serving Instructions:
1. Set oven to broil.
2. Place a generous slice of Gruyere cheese in the bottom of an oven safe bowl.
3. Add soup.
4. Place a piece of French bread on top of the soup. Cover with thinly sliced Gruyere.
5. Place in the oven until the cheese is melted.