Cream of French with Five Onions Soup

 

6  large sliced onions (red, sweet, white – or whatever mix you like)

2 cleaned and sliced leaks

2 chopped scallions

¼ cup of butter

¼ cup of flour

1 tbsp. sugar

Cut chives for garnish

 

½ to 1 cup of powdered Parmesan cheese (I purposely chose Kraft 100% powdered Parmesan for texture)

1 cup of cream

¼ cup sherry

½-1 cup of white wine

8 cups of beef broth

2 tbsp. of French mustard

4 bay leaves

Fresh thyme

Garlic (I used garlic powder for texture) – about 1 tbsp.

Salt and pepper

 

Slice and sauté all onions, leeks, and scallions in butter over a medium heat until just soft and translucent.  Add 1 tbsp. of sugar, ¼-1/2  cup of flour and stir.  Add 8 cups of beef broth, wine, sherry thyme leaves, bay leaves, mustard, salt and pepper, whisk and let come to a boil.  Turn down to a simmer and let simmer for about an hour.  Add cream and Parmesan and stir.  Taste soup often to adjust seasonings – salt, pepper, or even more Parmesan -  which really is the secret to the deep flavour of this soup .  Feel free to add a little more cream or garlic or French mustard as well..    Once the soup is to your liking, let cool and blend.  For garnish, I cut puff pastry rounds, baked them (read package for temperature and time – I cooked mine at 425 on middle rack for about 10 minutes) then add shredded fontina cheese on top of each puff pastry round midway through baking.  To make cheese crisps, put approximately 7  one tbsp. separate mounds of  fontina cheese on a pie plate.  Bake until just melted and just a bit browned.  Take out and let cool and remove with a small spatula.  You can store cheese crisps and puff pastry rounds in a Tupperware until you need them for soup.  Just warm the puff pastry in a microwave for about 30 seconds, put in hot soup with fontina cheese crisp and chives.