Onion Soup, Madeira, and Gruyère Toasts

Can I tell you how much I’m enjoying this time of year? Because of Daylight Saving Time, I’ve been waking up almost naturally at 6am. I love this. It makes me feel capable before the day has even begun.

And since we rarely turn on the heat, the mornings in our apartment are really cold. So, after making coffee, I wrap myself in a wool blanket, turn on my computer, and write. (Yeah, right. I wish! I actually get to checking my email and various blogs. At best, after a half hour of this, I make some sort of deal with myself and start writing.) Writing, writing, writing until I get super hungry, usually around 11am.

On days like this (where I need not report to work), I like to make soup for lunch. And, as previously discussed, the soup I’d gathered the ingredients for this time was Nigel Slater’s onion soup from his cookbook Tender. To be clear, I’d gathered all of the ingredients save for the Madeira, a fortified Portuguese wine. I’m sure if I had gone to a proper wine shop, I would have been able to find it, but I already had port at home and figured that would work just fine. Why? Because it was already there at home. Sidebar: did you know that by definition port is a fortified Portuguese wine? Apparently this is true.

I would recommend making this soup for the first step alone: simmering sliced onions in butter with two bay leaves for about 25 minutes. Almost instantly, the cold apartment warmed up and began smelling of the holidays. (Speaking of, if you’re like Matt and grew up celebrating Hanukkah, and sometimes have trouble remembering which day Christmas is, here’s a helpful site: isitchristmas.com.)

The soup was delicious. But let’s talk shop, eh? Why isn’t my soup a dark brown like Nigel’s? I followed his recipe exactly except for substituting a different kind of port. I mean, would the Madeira have really made that much of a difference? Well, my dear friend Mary Anne (pictured below trying out the soup) who happens to bear the last name Madeira and is also quite familiar with her ancestors' style of port, felt very confident that substituting the Madeira had nothing to do with the lighter color. Which begs the question: wtf? And I mean that in the best, most curious sense of the question. Please enlighten me if you have any ideas.

p.s. This soup marked the first time I have ever used our broiler. The reason for this is simple. It was also the first time I had bowls that were broiler-safe. Hurrah for my growing kitchen gadget/tool collection!

It should also be noted that I've just completed the ultra-rare Tender Trifecta, which is when one Bon Appetempts three recipes in a row from the cookbook Tender.

Onion soup, Madeira, and Gruyère Toasts by Nigel Slater via Tender

butter - a good thick slice

large onions - 3, sliced
bay leaves - 2
all-purpose flour - 2 tablespoons
white wine - 1 cup
chicken stock - 4 cups
Madeira - 3 to 4 tablespoons
sourdough bread - 8 small slices
Gruyère - 2 1/2 ounces, thinly sliced

Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan, add the sliced onions and the bay leaves, and let them cook, without coloring, over medium heat. you want them to be soft and slightly stick, which will take a good twenty-five minutes. When the are ready, stir in the flour, cook for a minute or so, then pour in the white wine, followed by the stock. Bring to a boil, season with salt and black pepper, then decrease the heat so that the soup simmers and simmer, with just an occasional stir, for thirty minutes. Add the Madeira and continue simmering for five to ten minutes.

Preheat the broiler. Toast the bread on one side, then cover the other side with the sliced Gruyère. Check the soup for seasoning, then spoon into heatproof bowls. Float the slices of bread on top and place under the broiler for a couple of minutes, until the cheese has melted.