You can call this French if you want, but from my reading most onion soups follow the same basic steps. This is mine.
This is variable – make as much or as little as you need.
1-2 onions per person (I typically use either red or yellow, but any type onion will work; red onions purportedly have a high sugar content naturally and caramelize fastest, but this is gonna take a long time no matter which ones you use)
Minced Garlic
Olive Oil
Butter
Salt
Sugar (optional – this will help the caramelization process along, but isn’t necessary)
Sherry (no need to get fancy – I use the $5 stuff)
Water
Bay Leaves
Beef bouillon or Better than Bouillon
Slice your onions thinly. Heat some butter and olive oil over medium heat until butter is melted. (Use around 1/2 T of each per onion, and err on the scant side. You need much less than you think you’ll need.) Add the onions and heat, stirring constantly, until the onions are soft. Add a dab of garlic per onion at this point, a pinch of garlic, and a pinch of sugar. About 1/4 tsp of each per person.
Maintain your heat over medium-low or medium; don’t turn the heat up too high or the onions will begin to burn before they caramelize.
Heat, stirring regularly. This will take a long time. When I made this today, it took nearly 2 hours. If a recipe tells you this will take 10-15 minutes, the recipe writer is either lying, or cooks theirs too fast so that the onions burn rather than caramelize.
You don’t have to stir constantly, but will need to every few minutes to keep things from burning. It just takes a long time to do it right, but it is absolutely worth it.
Once your onions are uniformly golden brown, with some of them browning and nice fonds are developing on the bottom of your pan, add a little sherry to deglaze the pan. Stir to loosen the fonds thoroughly. Then add enough water to cover the onions completely. Add a bay leaf or two. Heat to boiling, then reduce and simmer for 30 minutes to an hour. Longer if you want.
Stir in a tablespoon or so of bouillon for every 3-4 onions, and heat again to boiling. Taste, and add salt if needed or black pepper if desired.
To serve: place a piece of good bread and a slice of white cheese (swiss, provolone, gruyere, etc.) in a bowl, and ladle soup over it. If you want, put the cheese on top and stick under the broiler for a couple of minutes to brown it.
This is a stand-in-the-kitchen-and-listen-to-a-podcast kind of recipe, but it is oh, so satisfying when it’s done.