whine & dine

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As someone who has lived all her life in “the tropics” – particularly, Singapore – I’ve never had the chance to experience living in a climate where you feel the weather slowly growing warmer, cooler, wetter, drier, or anything of the sort. Sure, I’ve been to temperate regions before, and played in the snow, but that’s all very different from observing first-hand the subtle changes in weather and to appreciating the shorter days, produce in season, or even having the Zara window displays to make any sense to me in the last quarter of the year.

The weather in Hong Kong is starting to cool down significantly. While most Hong Kong-ers take this as an excuse to pull out their fur coats, gloves, and knee-high boots, it’s my signal to get cracking on autumn or winter foods – rich, starchy, stick-to-your-ribs dishes that warm you right through to your bones in cold, dreary weather. Unfortunately for all of us, the temperature’s only dipping slightly below 20C (and for the last week it’s actually gone back up to about 25C), so I think we’re all overreacting a little. But I’m as guilty as the winter fashionistas, I guess.

One of my favourite soups of all time is French Onion Soup. It’s sweet, it’s savoury, it’s kind of clear (in that it doesn’t have any cream in it), but it’s so rich and unctuous. I think what I love most about it is how all that flavour and complexity comes from the absolute simplicity of it all – it’s pretty much onions, butter and stock. That’s IT. The rest – whatever herbs you use to perfume it – is secondary. Precisely for this reason, it’s more important than ever to make sure that whatever goes into your pot is of the highest quality: there isn’t anything to hide mediocre flavours from mediocre ingredients. (In my world, this means you use home made stock – or water – as no over-salted, store-bought, god-knows-what-crap-went-into-it tetrapacks of stock, please.) To my delight, it’s also probably best made when the world outside your kitchen windows is icy cold so the soup steams up your glasses as you’re eating it and the smell perfumes your entire house, warming everyone who enters. So it’s no surprise that it was one of the top items on my To-Do list come cool weather.

As I’ve come to expect of any recipe from Thomas Keller, this one – too – is time-consuming. But for good reason. The 5 hours you’ll spend slowly caramelizing the onions results in strips of onion which are completely caramelized through, and not just on the outsides. It brings out this incredible sweetness and depth to the final product. It’s also better if the soup is prepared the day before and allowed to rest overnight in the fridge, which allows all the flavours to amalgamate.

Soupe a l’Oignon
(From Thomas Keller’s Bouchon)

2 bay leaves
6 large sprigs of thyme
12 black peppercorns

8 pounds (about 8 large) yellow onions
4 oz (8 tbsp) unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp all-purpose flour
3-3 1/2 quarts home-made beef, veal, chicken stock or water
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
sherry or red wine vinegar

1 baguette (about 2 1/2 inches in diameter)
extra virgin olive oil
salt
6-12 slices (1/8 inch thick) aged Comté or Emmentaler cheese (at least 4 inches square)
1 1/2 cups grated aged Comté or Emmentaler cheese, or a combination of the two

Tie the thyme, bay leaf and peppercorns into a cheesecloth sachet and set aside.

Cut off the tops and bottoms of the onions, then cut the onions lengthwise in half. Remove the peels and tough outer layers. Cut a V wedge in each one to remove the core and pull out any solid, flat pieces of onion running up from the core.

Lay an onion half cut side down on a cutting board with the root end towards you. Holding the knife on an angle, almost parallel to the board, cut the onion lengthwise into 1/4 inch thick slices. Once you’ve cut past the centre of the onion, the knife angle will become awkward: flip the onion onto its side, toward the knife, and finish slicing it. Separate the slices of onion, trimming away any root sections that are still attached and holding the slices together. Repeat with the remaining onions. (You should have about 7 quarts of onions.)

Melt the butter in a large heavy stockpot over medium heat. Add the onions and 1 tbsp salt, place a diffuser under the pot, and reduce the heat to low. Cook, stirring every 15 minutes and regulating the heat to keep the mixture bubbling gently, for about 1 hour, or until the onions have wilted and released a lot of liquid. Continue to stir the onions every 15 minutes, being sure to scrape the bottom and get into the corners of the pot, for about 4 hours more, or until the onions are caramelized throughout and a rich deep brown. Keep a closer eye on the onions toward the end of the cooking when the liquid has evaporated. Remove from the heat. You will need 1 1/2 cups of onions for the soup; reserve any extra for another use. The onions can be made up tot 2 days ahead and refrigerated.

Transfer the caramlized onions to a 5-quart pot (reheat if they’ve been refrigerated). Sift in the flour and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, for 2-3 minutes. Add the stock and sachet, bring to a simmer, and simmer for about 1 hour, or until the liquid is reduced to 2 1/2 quarts. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and a few drops of vinegar. Remove from the heat.

To prepare the croutons, preheat the broiler. Cut twelve 3/8-inch thick slices from the baguette (reserving the remainder for another use), and place on a baking sheet. Brush the bread lightly on both sides with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt. Place under the broiler and toast the first side until golden brown, then turn and brown the second side. Set aside and leave the broiler on.

To complete, return the soup to a simmer. Place six flameproof soup tureens, with about 1 1/2 cups capacity, on a baking sheet to catch any spills (the soup will bubble up over the sides of the tureens). Add the hot soup to the tureens, filling them up to within 1/2 inch of the tops. Top each serving with 2 croutons: lay them on the surface without pushing them into the soup. Lay the slices of cheese over the croutons so that the cheese overlaps the edges of the tureens by about 1/2 inch. Scatter the grated cheese over the sliced cheese, filling in the areas where the sliced cheese is thinner, or it may melt into the soup rather than forming a crust.

Place the tureens under the broiler for a few minutes, until the cheese bubbles, browns, and forms a thick crust. Eat carefully, the soup will be very hot.

Yield: 6 servings