So. It’s winter. It’s chilly, and you’ve either got legs that are heat-burned from the electric heater under your desk or your lips are peeling with the cold walk from the train station. Never fear, Ruby Assembly is here to brighten your afternoon by giving you a beautiful French Onion Soup recipe to share with your loved ones tonight. Chin chin, mes cheries!

What you need:

  • An awesome pot – not necessarily green or cast iron, but preferable in my opinion.
  • 4 large onions
  • 50 grammes butter
  • Extremely cute pinafore
  • Thyme & Bay Leaf
  • Flour
  • Beef stock (I like Massel personally, those new ‘jellified’ stocks aren’t as good as their old skool counterparts)
  • 1 bottle of white wine – cleanskin is completely acceptable
  • Gruyere cheese (or parmesan if in a pinch)
  • Best hits of the late 1990’s (including Ginuwine, Notorious Big and Toni Braxton, preferably)
  • White dinner rolls

Still life with onions in the Ruby Assembly cucina.

  1. Put on your pinafore and your late 1990’s hits (or hit play on the embedded video at the bottom of the page), and pour yourself a glass of white wine. For god’s sake, make sure it’s cold – there’s no winos in the house of Ruby Assembly.
  2. Chop up your onions with a sharp knife (the Women’s Weekly says blunt knives make onion fumes worse, which could apocryphal – but go with it) by cutting in half, then slicing thinly.
  3. Pop 50 grammes of butter (don’t bother with margarine, love) in the bottom of your favorite pot and place the sliced onions in. This is the perfect time to have a sip of white wine. Stir over medium heat for 30 minutes until they stop looking white…

 ….. and start being a beautiful caramel colour.

4. Meanwhile, bring 3/4 cup white wine to the boil. Add 3 cups of water, 4 cups beef stock and a bayleaf. After it has reached the boil, remove from heat.

5. Get down wit’ yo bad self to Notorious Big and put the oven on to 200 degrees. Cut your dinner rolls in half and top liberally with cheese.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twkh0YiInPM]

6. Stir 1 tablespoon flour into caramelised onions and stir until the mixture thickens. Gradually add the hot stock mixture and stir until the soup boils and thickens. Add thyme, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.

That’s one sweet lookin’ French Onion Soup.

7. While the soup still has 5 minutes to cook, pop your halved dinner rolls in the oven. Cook until the cheese is bubbling, then pop on top of the soup whilst it is steaming in bowls in front of your delighted loved ones. Playing Ginuwine at this stage is optional – but preferable.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVMKQP0K3a0]