Soup again

I made soup again today. This time, it was French Onion Soup, albeit without the croutons and cheese. I noticed the only vegetable I had left in the house (other than broccoli, but I'm saving that for later tonight) was onions, and I wanted to have soup, but didn't have any suitable meats for it (my cuts of beef and lamb aren't the best choice for stewing either). What did I do then? Google for French Onion Soup recipe!

Of course, I faced a second ingredient problem - no dry white wine or spirits suitable for non-dessert dishes. But I was getting quite irritated by then (yeah, it was PMS) so I just went and cooked it anyway, replacing the spirits with plain ol' stock.

It was really easy to prepare, now that I have my slicer set. Here's my recipe, which was really a combination of a few I'd read online:

1) Slice 2 large onions. Doesn't matter if they're thickly or thinly or evenly sliced, but I prefer thinner cuts.
2) Melt 50g butter in a pan, then add 1 tbsp sugar. Stir till sugar is melted and butter is frothy.
3) Add onions, fry around, then leave it for half an hour to caramelise. Check and stir from time to time.
4) Add 1/2 tbsp flour, mix around. At this point, I added about 1/2 tsp of thyme and 1 tsp garlic powder. That was waaaay too much thyme, as I only intended to add 1/4 tsp of it. Anyhow, mix it around till blended with the onions.
5) Add water (or stock). I'm not sure how much is good, exactly, but I added about 1.25litres and it kinda seems like too much. Oh well *shrugs*. By the way, if you're using water instead of stock, you probably should stir in a stock cube as well. I tried using vegetable stock, but the flavour was so bland I added in some chicken Maggi Shake Shake. The best to use would be beef.
6) Bring to boil, and simmer gently for about 30mins (you can put it on a lower heat and simmer for longer if you want). At this point you can go away and do whatever.
7) Add seasonings, serve.

Rightfully, you should make croutons, sprinkle cheese on top, then grill till cheese is melted, then serve cheese croutons with soup. Some recipes require the soup to be made in a casserole pot, then have the croutons added into the soup and sprinkled with cheese, and the whole pot grilled. But as I don't have any bread, I can't follow this so meh. I don't feel much like eating cheese-bread at the moment anyway.

Try making this! It's so easy and doesn't require much attention, and doesn't taste all that bad. Only thing is, it's a really warming soup, so it's best if you eat it in the winter or on a cold day, or in a room with air conditioning. I'm a weird idiot, so I'm eating it in summer-like weather. HA.

That last statement reminded me of something I told my sister once, back in December when I was wearing long sleeves to a mamak stall:

"Some people ask 'What kind of idiot wears long sleeves in Malaysia??'. My answer would be 'The same kind of idiot who wears spaghetti straps in winter."

:P Obviously, the statement refers to myself.

Okay, I've got to go and study now. Soup is smelling great (it hasn't finished boiling yet lol) and it's no wonder people think it goes really well together with cheese-bread. It just smells right. Hehehehehe, I can't wait to drink it! The taste-test was already damn good.....

EDIT> Okay, because I boiled the soup without a cover, the water volume was reduced to about 2/3 of what it originally was. This was great, as it made the flavour more concentrated and yummy. Also, I just found half a baguette which is MeiZi's leftover, and she'd sent us an email saying we can use it. I'm not gonna make croutons, but maybe I'll just slice a little of it to eat with the soup :) Oh! Point to soup: warmth = less period pains. WOOHOO. I'm soooo making this again.