French Onion Soup

Recipe adapted from Working Class Foodies

Serves 8

Preparation & Cooking Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:
1. 1.5kg of red or yellow onions, peeled and sliced
2. 4-6 cloves garlic chopped
4. 3 TBS butter
5. 2 TBS olive oil
6. 1 cup red or white wine or beer
7. 2 litres beef or vegetable stock (traditionaly this dish is made of beef stock)
8. A couple of strigs of thyme
9. 5-8 bay leave
10. 4 slices of french baguette
11. A handful of grated cheese (gouda, parmesan, pecorino, gruyere) for each bowl
12. Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Heat oil and butter in a pot, and fry garlic until lightly golden.

2. Add onions and stir occasionally. 

3. Add salt and pepper.

4. Add strigs of thyme and bay leaves and stir occasionally for 15-20 minutes. The browning, or caramelizing, of the onions brings out the sweetness in them.

5. Add wine and bring to rapid boil for 10 - 15 minutes to evaporate the alcohol.

6. Add stock and simmer for 1 hours.

7. Toast the bread.

8. In a individual crock pot or coffee mug, add onion soup.

9. Add a slice of bread on top and  top with grated cheese.

10. Put the soup bowl on a pan (to catch any soup that may drip out on the side) and put them into the oven.

11. Bake 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbling.

Additional Information:
I didn't have little soup crockpots, so I used mugs. Sorry for the messy looking pictures. I wasn't so good at keeping it neat. Hopefully i would  be better at my next attempt :-) I made this for my Chinese neighbour, Yang Li, who came over this evening, and we had a mug each. She is interested to learn European cooking.

References:
http://www.squidoo.com/soup-recipe-onion
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/french_onion_soup/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_onion_soup