Читать книгу Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights - Sophie Dahl - Страница 19

SERVES 4 GENEROUSLY

3 large yellow onions

1 tablespoon of butter

Slug of olive oil

2 litres/8 cups of stock—I used 4 cups of chicken stock, 4 of vegetable. Beef is the traditional choice, but I think this is as good

1 tablespoon of good aged syrupy balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

100g/1 cup of grated cheese—Gruyère is delicious, but Parmesan will do as well

Purists will argue this is nothing like the real thing, which should be made with beef stock and have a great molten island of bread and cheese on top. I use vegetable stock and lose the bread—it’s not as heavy, yet still as decadent and comforting. The trick is slooooooooow cooking the onions, so they impart their rich caramelly flavour to the soup. A drizzle of good balsamic vinegar also gives it a rich enigmatic taste, perfect for a blowsy autumn day.

Roughly chop the onions. In a large pot (I use a heavy-bottomed Le Creuset), melt the butter with a few glugs of olive oil on a low heat. You don’t want it to burn. Make sure the bottom of the pan is covered, by swishing it around.

Pour in the onions, mix them into the oil with a wooden spoon and sweat gently for about 40 minutes. If your heat is kept to the lowest setting they won’t need more oil. Sometimes this is helped by using a heat diffuser pad. Towards the end of the cooking, turn up the heat a bit; you want the onions to brown and caramelize, not to be charred to a crisp.

When the onions look golden and browned round the edges, pour in the stock. Turn down the heat to low again, stir, and add the balsamic vinegar. I don’t know why, but this gives the soup a mellow, sweet earthiness. Let it simmer for another 15 minutes, taste, add salt and pepper if needed and then, using a ladle, pour into bowls.

Pour the cheese in when you are about to serve.