Mme. Diat: Onion Soup Gratinée

My body has hated me from day one and thus tries incessantly to overtake me. I have acid reflux that normally dictates it's unwise to eat onions; so I traditionally steer clear. However, as a soup, cheese, and bread lover, if French Onion Soup is on the menu, I am there. Last night, Mme. Pépin and I [with the assistance of my younger and much burlier brother] took our first venture into Chez Jacques with an Onion Soup Gratinée.

Aside from eating at almost 9 p.m., the dinner was absolutely delicious. In my mind, I had envisioned a product vaguely reminiscent of the Thanksgiving Cheese Soup that ended up, well, gray. For those of us not color blind, we realize that cheese should never take on a gray hue.

For this gratinée,Chez Jacques called for the onions to be thinly sliced and then browned. Fearing that we would get large, uncooked, onion chunks [see Thanksgiving Cheese Soup fears], I suggested that we grate the vegetable instead. Aside from causing me to physically weep while working, the idea turned out well. Though I can see why Chez Jacques asks that you slice them. Grating the onions makes the bits quite small and they often get lost with the cooked bread. The next time I try this recipe I will remember that and, to test the consistencies, I will try slicing instead of grating.

The friend who was in charge of purchasing baguettes decided to bring one French bread baguette and one multi-grain baguette. And while I appreciate a bread with personality, I don't think you want anything other than an Italian or French baguette. Straying from those two options might lead to some awkward questions such as, "What is this seed in the soup from?" That's, more often than not, a question that you don't want to hear.

The recipe asks that you brown the bread in the oven before putting it into the broth. While I was eating, I thought about the French Onion soup that I'd come to love. The bread in every variation that I've tasted had a spongier and lighter feel. I have to wonder what we can do next time to achieve that kind of airiness in the bread. It was a tad heavy and tasted more like a mushy dumpling than the bread I had remembered.

All in all, the soup turned out fantastic. And I wouldn't at all hesitate to repeat the recipe again. Once the soup was out of the oven, it was a welcome surprise as our dinner guests were getting antsy, Mme. Pépin and I hesitantly looked at one another as we took our first bite; first recipe down, a whole book left to go.

Mme. Pépin: Onion Soup Gratinée

The unique thing about Jacque's book is that he accompanies all of his recipes with a narrative of sorts about how that recipe fit into his life. As I was reading the narrative preceding the Onion Soup Gratinée I grew apprehensive about my abilities, culinary and equipment wise, to complete that recipe.

He writes of how his mother would prepare her version of the Onion Soup. There were crusts of cheese to break, wine and such to pour into the soup and 30 minutes worth of browning the onions. Thankfully, his recipe was slightly less complicated. Though I must have overlooked the part about needing individual soup carafes. Ah well, I had two iron pieces that I could fill as needed and that could go into the oven.

The setting I used to debut the Onion Soup was a Sunday night dinner among friends. There was going to be enough of us there that it warranted a double recipe. Everyone decided to pitch in and help in the creation of the soup. As soon as one of my friends showed up with the baguettes, the preparations began. One chopped the garlic and grated the fresh onions, which brought the whole room to tears, and is still giving me a bit of a headache, as another got the onions browning (which took an eternity-not his fault, there were a lot of onions to be browned). I cut the bread and browned it, lined the two iron pieces with it, lay the cheese on top of it, and left it to wait for the onions to finished.

A side note, last November I attempted a cheese soup, which seems very similar to what I made this evening. Except that one went horribly wrong. The onions weren't cooked enough, the base wasn't made correctly, the end product turned out... grey.

So needless to say, this time, I was making sure those onions were cooked properly. When the time came we put the onions into a pot of chicken broth along with the garlic, salt and pepper. That was a whole lot of liquid to boil, even with the lid on.

Finally, the soup was ready to be put into the bread and cheese lined iron pieces, and covered with more cheese. After 30 minutes in the oven, what emerged smelled and looked not too much unlike the photo in Jacque's book. In fact, I didn't fill the iron pieces to the brim, so my soup wasn't overflowing and making a mess as was the soup in his photo (although photographically interesting, cheese didn't sound like something fun to be scraping off of my iron pieces).

I solved the problem of not having individual carafes for everyone by using my ladle to slice the cheese into sections and made sure everyone had a bowl full of cheese/bread/soup. Aside from a few people noting that it was incredibly hot (I warned them), the overall conclusion was that it turned out very well. In fact, some people admitted to be very surprised. I must admit that I too, was a tad skeptical at first, but quite pleased with the outcome. I would definitely make that meal again.

My boyfriend's adage about the quality of my work vs the time it takes for me to complete cette work, holds very much true. Yes it turned out very well, but it took quite a while to get to that point. One down... how many more to go?