French Onion Soup

Preparation time: approx. 90 minutes

Preparation You'll need: A medium pot Two ovenproof baking dishes of medium size
Ingredients Soup (for 2 persons) 4-5 medium onions 45 g butter 90 ml red wine 30 ml cognac 750 ml granulated chicken stock 750 ml granulated beef stock just under 1 Tbsp toasted flour Nutmeg, pepper Ingredients Topping 100-120 g grated Gruyère 6-8 slices of baguette, depending on the diameter. Approx. 1 cm thick. 1 small clove of garlic
Preparation Peel and quarter the onions, then cut into thin strips. Heat the medium pot over a high heat. Add just under 1 Tbsp of flour and toast until medium to dark brown, stirring constantly to prevent burning. When ready, tip the flour into a small bowl. Put the pot aside for 2 or 3 minutes so that it can cool down a little. Now melt 45 g butter in the pot and cook the onions over a medium heat until soft, about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally. Meanwhile, measure 90 ml red wine and 30 ml cognac into a glass. Add 3 heaped tsp of grained stock (chicken, beef) to the roasted flour. Now switch to a high heat and continue to cook the onions, stirring constantly (make sure that no black burnt crust forms on the bottom of the pan) - approx. 10-15 minutes. As soon as the onions are well browned and caramelised, deglaze with wine and cognac. Continue cooking until the liquid has evaporated, which is quite quick. Add the roasted flour/grained stock and stir well. Deglaze with 1.5 litres of water and stir well again. Bring the soup to the boil. Now reduce the soup by a good half (approx. 900 ml) over a medium to high heat. This will certainly take half an hour to three quarters of an hour - in the meantime: Stir from time to time. Flavour with pepper and nutmeg. Don't forget to preheat the oven: approx. 210℃ top heat. Toast the 6-8 slices of baguette in the toaster to a medium brown colour. Grate 100-120 g Gruyère cheese. As soon as the toasted slices of bread have cooled, cut 1 small clove of garlic in half and rub lightly into one side of each slice.
Last Steps Once the soup has reduced to approx. 900 ml, divide between the two oven dishes. Now sprinkle about 2 Tbsp of the cheese over each, place 3 slices of bread on top and sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top. Place in the oven and bake for approx. 5 minutes. The cheese should then be lightly browned, otherwise switch the oven to grill briefly and don't let it out of your sight.

 

Phở

Attention! This will take around 6 hours to prepare!

Preparation You'll need: A large pot (for the rice ribbon noodles) A medium sized pot (for the soup) A small pan 2 or 3 rather large bowls to serve the soup
Ingredients (for 4 persons) 2 thick (cross-cut) beef shanks, ca. 600 grams 3 marrow bones Ca. 400 grams beef fillet 1.5 litres water 2 small star anise 1 cinnamon stick 1 small onion 1 piece of ginger 3 spring onions (stem and leaves) 3 twigs Thai basil 3 twigs coriander 3 twigs mint 150 grams Mung bean sprouts 4 Thai chilis 1 small lime 4 Tbsp Vietnamese Fish Sauce 200 grams Vietnamese rice ribbon noodles
First steps Bring 1.5 litres water to boil in a medium sized pot. In the meantime wash the shanks and the bones, add to the water. Roast in a pan without oil (best would be a wrought-iron pan) the onion and the piece of ginger (only peeled, not cut small) until they start to get black patches. That will take a few minutes. When roastet enough, also add them to the water. Let this boil covered for 5 hours on low heat.
Intermediate steps After 5 hours add cinnamon stick and 2 star anise. Let it cook for another hour. Attention! Check the noodles to see if they have to soak for some time. You can get at that in this last hour, use the large pot. In the meantime you can prepare the rest: Clean 150 grams Mung bean sprouts, the herbs (3 stems of Thai basil, coriander and mint each). Pluck the leaves and roughly chop them. Cut into rings the 3 spring onions and 4 chilis. Wash the lime under hot water and cut it into eight pieces. Cut the fillet into very thin slices, you also might want to cut the slices into small pieces. After that last hour of cooking: Pour the soup through a sieve into a large bowl and set the broth aside again in the pot. Remove star anise and cinnamon stick. Separate the beef from the bones and remove the bones.
Last Steps Preheat the large soup bowls in the oven. Add salt to the soaking noodles and bring the water to boil. They are done as soon as the water starts to boil. If you're doing the soup for the first time, you could prepare all bowls completely and serve them. Otherwise I would suggest to put the ingredients into separate small bowls and place them on the table, so that people can do their own mix. Some don't like noodles so much or want less broth, others don't want so much of the cooked beef... Bring the broth to boil again. Put noodles, sprouts and the cooked beef into the preheated bowls. Add herbs and spring onions. Place the raw fillet slices on top and pour the hot broth over everything. Add some lime pieces and chili. You should place the bottle of fish sauce on the table, too, I for one like do add some more into my own bowl ☺
Keeping it in the fridge You can keep left-overs in the fridge, but it is very important to first remove all the lime pieces. They will make the whole soup very bitter!