Soupe a l'Oignon Gratinee

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg brown onions, halved and thinly sliced
• 60g unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 200ml dry white wine
• 1.5 litres good beef stock
• 2 tbsp cognac or brandy
• 3 thyme sprigs
• 1 bay leaf
• 8 slices of baguette, cut 2cm thick
• 200g Gruyere or Comte, coarsely grated
• 1 garlic clove, halved
• Black pepper

Before you cook

• Halve the onions from root to tip, then slice them thinly across so you get even half-moons.
• Grate the cheese coarsely.
• Cut the baguette into two-centimetre slices.

Steps

1. Melt the butter with the oil in a wide heavy pot over medium heat.
2. Add all the onions with the salt and stir to coat them in the fat.
3. Cover the pot and let the onions sweat for fifteen minutes until they have collapsed and released their liquid.
4. Take off the lid, raise the heat slightly, and stir in the sugar.
5. Cook the onions uncovered for forty-five minutes, stirring every few minutes and scraping the brown film off the base each time.
6. Keep going until the onions are the colour of dark honey and reduced to a fraction of their original volume.
7. Scatter over the flour and stir for two minutes.
8. Pour in the wine and cognac and boil for three minutes, scraping the base clean.
9. Add the stock, thyme and bay, and bring to the boil.
10. Turn the heat down and simmer, partly covered, for forty minutes.
11. Heat the grill to its highest setting.
12. Toast the baguette slices under the grill for two minutes a side until dry and golden.
13. Rub one side of each toast with the cut garlic clove.
14. Remove the thyme stalks and bay leaf from the soup and season it with pepper and more salt if it needs it.
15. Ladle the soup into four ovenproof bowls, leaving a good two centimetres of space at the top.
16. Float two toasts on each bowl and pile the grated cheese over them right to the rim.
17. Sit the bowls on a baking tray and slide them under the grill for four minutes until the cheese is bubbling and patched with brown.
18. Warn everyone that the bowls are dangerously hot, and serve immediately.