As bob mentioned, I don't really work from recipes. I'll give a few suggestions/recommendations though.SmurfBlueSnuggie wrote: I have yet to find a recipe for french onion soup that I consider adequate. Would you be willing to share Marduk's?
First, I do sautee in butter, but it doesn't need to be much. I do 4-5 medium onions (or 2.5-3 large ones) and I sautee in about 2 tbsp. of butter. The key is that they should sautee until they are carmellized: most people add the liquid WAY too early. At medium heat on a gas range it should take at least 30 minutes, on an electric range it could take up to an hour or more. They should be a dark brown color by the time you add the liquid. I season the onions when I sautee them with a bit of salt and thyme. Then add your bittering agent (more on this later) and use it to deglaze the pan. THEN I add the liquid and other seasoning (a bay leaf or two, salt/pepper to taste, a pinch of cayenne pepper) and simmer for another 20-30 min before I dish it into bowls. Then put your bread into the bowls (I like baguettes) add the cheese and transfer to the oven until the cheese is lightly browned.
The key is finding the balance between the sweetness of the onions and the bitterness of your bittering agent, which is really dependent on the person and takes tweaking. Although Bob said she liked this one, for me it was too sweet: I used red onions and about 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar, which combines for the sweetest you can get. If you use a canned beef broth, you have to keep it on the sweeter side, because otherwise it tastes tinny. (Also, I cut the beef broth with equal parts chicken broth. You don't lose the beef flavor, and the canned chicken broth is overall much better quality.) I think next time I'm going to use whites and keep the balsamic. Alternatively, I might keep reds but add in a red wine to my deglazing efforts.
As far as cheeses, use a hard cheese with a nutty flavor which will offset the natural sweetness of the carmellized onions. First choice is gruyere, but it is expensive. Some will suggest swiss but the flavor of swiss (here, anyways) is far too mild to do the job. I tried Dubliner this time and was satisfied with the results. But in general, any hard cheese should work fairly well (although I'd stay away from cheddar.)
ETA: more on the bittering agent. I like the fruity flavor of the balsamic, but you could also try a red wine vinegar or even an apple cider vinegar, which would give it a more continental flavor, and would be stronger than the balsamic. If you REALLY don't want it to be sweet, go with white onion and use a distilled vinegar. You'll lose the fruitiness, though, so you'd have to give it a fairly herbed flavor not to fall flat. Also you'd definitely have to use homemade beef broth to go this route, otherwise all you'll taste will be the cans the broth was put in.
