Onion Soup

Yumblog is now being swamped with spam. So to all those spammers trying to flog us Arcoxia, Atarax, Augmentin, Buspirone, Cardizem, Celebrex and a whole alphabet of other ‘meds’ – fuck off. To the spammers who think we’re so dull-witted we’d publish their comments because they write a generic ‘I completely agree’ – fuck off. To the spammers who have randomly gererated names such as Dwutebuk, Gvgoyiqehu, Sjuegdec and Guriyauhhicu – fuck off. To the spammers who can’t even be bothered to write in coherent English but instead shit out abject nonsense such as ‘fiorinal fioricet magine that waterfalls’ or ‘ovral dangers molesting father’ – fuck off. To ‘Whole Life Insurance’ who thinks we’re so undiscriminating we’d buy insurance from a company that regularly shits in our inbox – fuck off. In summary – fuck off and stop polluting people’s lives. And now for some soup.

This page is sponsored by Le Creuset

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 40-50 minutes
Skill level: easy
Serves: 2 for a main course

Ingredients

• 4 onions (about 600g when peeled) – thinly sliced
• butter
• plain flour – 1 tbsp
• Pastis – 2 tbsp
• dry white wine – 3 tbsp
• vegetable stock – 1 litre
• garlic – 1 clove
• olive oil
• s & p
• French bread – day old – about 8 slices
• Gruyère cheese

Melt some butter in a large pan and add the thinly sliced onions. Sauté until the onions have caramalised and gone brown. You may have to do this in several stages as the onions need to have plenty of contact with the bottom of the pan.

Add the flour, stir and continue cooking for a minute or two.

Add the Pastis, wine and stock, bring to the boil, cover with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes. Season to taste.

Meanwhile, brush both sides of the bread slices with olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper and place under a grill until toasted (both sides). Rub with garlic.

Ladle the soup into the serving dishes, carefully float the toasts on top and generously sprinkle with the cheese. Place under a hot grill until the cheese has melted.

Serve.

Verdict: A rich, sweet warming soup.

Drink: A bottle of dry white wine (minus 3 tbsp for the soup)

Entertainment: ‘MasterChef’ followed by ‘Grand Designs’ – John, Gregg AND Kevin McCloud on the same night – a cracking good evening of viewing. Definitely didn’t like the Clapham couple with their £1,000,000 grade 2 factory conversion