Wintery onion soup

Few things are more warming in winter than a nice and savoury French onion soup. Golden sweetness in a bowl, with a nice crust of bread and molten cheese. Ideal for the colder days or when you just fancy it.
This is the recipe I inherited from my grandmother, and to me it is exactly how a good onion soup should taste.

French Onion Soup

serves 4

Ingredients

4 large onions (about 1kg)

50g butter or olive oil

1-2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 ts (teaspoon) black pepper

1/4 ts sugar

20g flour (about 2.5 ts)

2 dl dry white wine (sauvignon blanc, or another nice one you like)

0.8 liter chicken or vegetable stock

a baguette or other light bread (ciabatta, pide, etc)

8 Ts (table spoon) grated cheese, pref. Gouda or Gruyere.

Slice the onions in rings or half rings.

Take a big pot suitable for soup. Melt the butter and sweat the onions for about 10 minutes on medium fire, while stirring well. Add the garlic and sweat for 5 more minutes.

Add the sugar, flour and grinded pepper and braise it for 5 more minutes.

Preheat the oven (grill) on 200 degrees.

Now add the wine to the onion mixture, enjoy the aroma for a moment, then add the chicken stock. Leave it to simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes, preferably you want your soup to be only just boiling.

Taste and add salt/pepper to your liking.

Cut your baguette/other kind of bread into slices (about 4 cm each). Pour the warm soup into nice bowls, put a slice of bread in the soup, take the grated cheese and sprinkle it over the bread and soup. If you are using a softer kind of bread, you could toast it before putting in the soup.

Now put the bowls under the preheated grill and melt the cheese untill it is golden brown (5-7 minutes, depending on the grill). Be careful when lifting the bowls out, as they might be hot. Serve straight away

Often with soup, the taste is even better the day after making it. I normally make the onion soup the evening before, which means I can just fire my oven, heat the soup, put it into bowls, melt the cheese and tuck away. Also great when you have guests as it saves your time in the kitchen.

For a slightly different flavour, and some more complexity, you can use some different kinds of onions: great white onions, banana onions, red onions, shallots, anything really, or just what you happen to have in stock. And to add some more warmth it is nice to add some (moderately hot, deseeded & sliced) chili pepper when sweating the onions.

Great Spanish tortilla de patatas

I've been to Spain lately, and one of the things I really love about it is the love of the Spanish for fresh food and the way they do tapas with friends over a drink.
One of the tapas that can be really nice is tortilla de patatas, so when I came back the first thing I started making to go back in the atmosphere was just that.

A good tortilla takes some time to make, but the result is so nice it is totally worth the effort. The secret is to slowly bake the onion and potato, so you get a wonderful sweet and flavourful dish. You can cut it and serve it as a tapa, or use it as a lunch dish for 3 or 4 people. Leftovers are also really nice to eat cold and make something special of your lunch the next day. Ideal to take with you to work or university.

Tortilla de Patatas

Serves 4

Ingredients
olive oil
350g onions, peeled, halved and then finely sliced
350g potatoes
3 eggs (free-range just tastes better)
some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put a normal size non-stick frying pan on medium heat and put in about 1 cm of olive oil. Don't worry about using this much oil, as most of it will be drained away later.

Add the onions and cook slowly until they are soft and golden, this would take about 30 minutes.

In the meantime you can peel the potatoes and slice them into rounds of approx 1 cm.

Add the potatoes to the onions and turn up the heat a little. Now frie the mixture untill the potatoes are soft, stirring rather frequently and breaking the potatoes up with a spatula. Don't try to rush this part, as this is where the potatoes get their flavour and sweetness.

When the mixture has become dark brown, caramelised, and smells nice and sweet, take the frying pan off the heat and drain the mixture of the oil and put it on kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil that's still on it.

While the excess oil is being absorbed, and the mixture is cooling down a little, beat the eggs in a bowl and add quite a generous amount of salt (remember, there was is no salt on the potato mix yet) and some pepper. Now add the potato mix and spoon it through the eggs.

Put the pan back on the fire (medium heat) with about a tablespoon of oil. Add the mixture and cook for about 3 - 4 minutes until the top is just about setting.

Now put a plate upside down on the frying pan - one that's slightly larger than the pan - and turn the two around. Beware of any excess hot oil dripping out, though if you use just a tablespoon of oil there shouldn't be much to worry about. Now gently let the tortilla slide back into the pan and bake the other side for about 3 minutes. If you prefer your tortilla a bit runny in the middle, you can cook both sides about half a minute less.

Slice the tortilla and serve it to your friends as a tapa, or put it on the table whole for lunch or as part of a dinner.

The tortilla is best served hot, but if you have more than you can eat you can easily put leftovers in the fridge, it is also very nice to eat cold or at room temperature for lunch or late night snack.

Enjoy!