Sunday Supper: Wine and Food Pairing of the Week

French Onion Soup and Cabernet Sauvignon

A day late and a dollar short seems to be our mantra these days!

We’re so sorry we didn’t get up this awesome post for our Sunday Supper yesterday, but what can we tell you? We’re human. Moving forward we have the best intentions to get everything up on the days we promise to post. But you know what they say about good intentions …

Regardless, this really, really tasty French onion soup is great for rainy, chilly days like today as well. It doesn’t take very long, and it’s so filling, you can serve with a side salad, and dinner is done. Or as the French would say, “fait accompli.” That is what they’d say, right?

Alright. Enough dilly-dallying. We’ve got soup to make.

French Onion Soup

Serves 7

When we first started making this yummy, yummy, yummy soup, we actually browned beef bones to make our own beef stock. But seriously, who has time for that? Now we go to the butcher and buy really good quality beef stock since it’s such a front-and-centre ingredient in this dish.

What You Need

• 2.5 litres beef stock
• 3 Tbsp olive oil or bacon fat
• 8 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• 3 large, dried bay leaves
• small handful fresh thyme
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 2 cups grated gruyere
• 14 slices French baguette, toasted
• 1.5 cups cognac or brandy
• 1 cup red wine
• 2 Tbsp flour
• Splash balsamic vinegar

How You Do It

1. Warm a very large stock pot over medium heat
2. Slice onions
3. Melt bacon fat or warm olive oil
4. Add onions and stir to coat with oil (TWS tip – we use a pot and sauté pan. If you add all the onions to one, they won’t caramelize, they’ll just steam and that’s not what you’re going for. About 2 inches of onions is all you want in the pan.)
5. Depending on how hot your stove top is, you may need to turn the heat down to medium low.
6. Let the onions sit and cook – stirring only very occasionally. As the onions cook down they will turn deep brown and get sticky. This whole process should take about 40 minutes or so.
7. Deglaze the pan with the cognac, (or both pans with half the cognac each) scraping up the brown bits from the bottom.
8. If using two pans, dump the contents of the pan into the stock pot
9. Stir in garlic and cook for 30 seconds until garlic is cooked through
10. Sprinkle flour over the onions and stir – the onions will get sticky. Cook for a few minutes until the flour is absorbed and no longer raw.
11. Sprinkle onions conservatively with salt and pepper – you can always add more later.
12. Add red wine and stir
13. Throw in thyme and bay leaves and pour in beef stock
14. Let it come to a boil, scrape off the beige foam that surfaces and turn down to a simmer
15. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar
16. Cook for about an hour, skimming off foam
17. Adjust salt and pepper to taste, remove bay leaves and thyme sprigs and ladle into oven-proof ramekins or bowls
18. Set bowls on a pan sheet top with toasted baguette and cover in grated gruyere
19. Broil for one or two minutes, keeping a close eye, until cheese has melted
20. Remove from oven, wearing oven gloves and serve with salad and more crusty bread if desired.

The Wine Sisters’ Wine Pairing

We opted for California Cabernet. Initially we were going to open a Chardonnay, as the cheese and roast onions make for an ideal pairing, but honestly, we forgot to chill one, and, as we were already sipping this heart warming red on a chilly fall day, we kept going.

Decoy Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma County, California 2012
$33.95 Vintages 186171
An elegant and powerful California Cab with aromas of dusty herbs, Cherry NyQuil, and cassis. Smooth on the palate with well-integrated tannin and flavours of black cherry, red raspberry, black licorice, and a subtle cedar note. Terrific value.

How Did the Pairing Work?

Wonderfully.
We weren’t planning on the Cab, but in hindsight, French Onion Soup is a natural for Cabernet. The soup’s main flavours are hearty beef stock (natural flavour partner for Cab), caramelized onions (which take on a meaty texture, and caramelization is another great pairing Cabernet) and salty cheese (fruity wine and salty cheese are a match made in heaven). So, it wasn’t necessarily our first pick, but it worked out beautifully.