Stella is in the picture at right. She always wants to be included in the cooking process! I happened to have some local onions, very useful as they came in pound bags for way less than at the supermarket. I used two yellow onions, three or four red onions, and a small handful of shallots. When you mix up the types of onion, it helps the flavor deepen.
For 4 servings you'll need:
4 cups thinly sliced onions
1 1/2 tbs butter
1/2 tbs oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tbs flour
5 cups beef broth or stock
1/8 cup cognac or brandy
1/2 cup dry white wine or dry vermouth
Start on medium-low heat in a large pot. Add the butter, oil and chopped onions and slowly saute for about 20 minutes, or until the onions have softened. Then stir in the salt and sugar and turn the heat up to medium, stirring frequently until the onions are golden brown, about another 20 minutes. Then sprinkle the flour over the onions and keep stirring for an additional two minutes. Off heat, whisk in one cup of the beef broth or stock and the cognac or brandy. When well blended, add the rest of the stock and the vermouth.
So easy, and so flavorful! The hardest part of this recipe is chopping all the onions! This is a really impressive recipe for dinner parties, and would make well with vegetable broth, as long as the flavor was deep enough. I just love that golden color that the beef broth brings to the soup. Try also to get good brandy or cognac, as you'd never drink a bad-quality wine to drink with dinner, so why add bad-quality ingredients to the soup? The flavor of the alcohol only deepens as the alcohol is cooked off, so the worse quality the alcohol you use, the more likely your guests will know by the taste! I just got a few nips, to be cheap, and since I don't often drink cognac!