We’re not sure about you, but come cold weather, curling up with a book or a tv show and drinking a hot bowl of soup sounds like a good time. So we present you with a thin, somehow rich, soup. It’s one of the classics–French Onion.

Recipe (Inspired by Chef John):

Notes

1. Difficulty: Easy

2. Length: Medium

3. Keep in mind: the longer you cook the onions, the sweeter they’ll become.  But don’t overcook.

4. Why we made it: we wanted to drink soup

5. Why you should make it: you might want to drink soup too

Ingredients (makes 2-3 portions)

1. 3-4 large yellow onions (these are typically sweeter than white onions, and cheaper)

2. ⅓ stick of butter

3. thyme (around 2 sprigs)

4. bay leaf

5. a splash of sherry vinegar

6. a splash of dry sherry (this ingredient makes a world of a difference)

7. 2 cups chicken stock

8. 2 cups beef stock

9. bread (sliced, preferably a day old. We recommend baguette or sourdough. You’ll need 2-3 slices per serving (as well as extra for dipping)

10. cheese, grated (we recommend gruyere, but this is up to you)

Equipment

1. high-sided saucepan (or pot, or basically anything you can saute onions in and then turn into soup)

2. ramekins for serving (we used really big ramekins, but this is up to you)

3. spatula to saute

4. cutting board/knives

5. oven to broil

Before you turn on any heat, cut up your onions. Traditional french onion soup slices these into long thin strips, but we decided to give them a dicing instead.

Melt your butter in your pan/pot of choice.

When the butter gets hot enough, add in all your onions at once. To test the heat, drop one piece of onion in. If the onion sizzles, go forth. If not, wait for that piece to sizzle before adding in your onions. Be careful of oil spills, and always pour away from you.

Add a couple pinches of salt. This step will not only flavor your dish layer by layer, but also help draw out the liquid in the onions.

There’s nothing much to do now until your onions reduce. They’ll start sweating and turn translucent before coloring. Be patient, and stir occasionally to make sure they don’t burn.

When your onions are a light golden, add in the bay leaf, the thyme, and the vinegar. Stir to incorporate and let the flavors infuse.

You might notice some buildup on the bottom of the pan. Don’t fret–those will be incorporated once the dry sherry is added.

When your onions are a beautiful golden brown, add a couple splashes  (about ⅓ cup) of your dry sherry and scrape the bottom of the pan, releasing the buildup and all the flavor they contain.

After the alcohol cooks off, add in your stock.

At this point, while you wait for the stock to reduce, turn your oven on and set it on broil to get the heat going.

Before ladling the soup into your ramekins, taste for seasoning. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Then, portion your soup into ramekins and top with slices of bread. Top the bread  generously with grated cheese.

Broil for a couple minutes, just until the cheese turns golden brown and starts bubbling.

Serve with extra croutons

And that’s french onion soup, in a nutshell.

Next up: “You have to eat oatmeal or you’ll dry up. Anybody knows that.” -Kay Thompson (creator of the Eloise childrens’ books)