Tick of Yum

Ingredients:

6 cloves of garlic

1 kilo of onions (mixed red and brown) - peeled and quartered

200g of butter

200g of red wine

100g of port

40g of sugar

150g of plain flour (or Arrowroot flour for GF people)

2 tablespoons of cracked pepper

550g of COLD Beef Stock Concentrate paste (see previous post) -

1 tsp of dried thyme (or equiv of fresh)

Method:

Chop the garlic, speed 7 for 6 seconds

add the onions.  Chop on speed 4-5 for 10-15 seconds - USE spatula to assist.

Scrape down and add the butter, the wine and the port

Simmer on 100oC for 45 minutes with the MC in place and 15 further minutes with the simmer basket on top of the lid instead (lets the steam escape but prevents splatters)

enjoy the amazing smell!!!

take the onion mixture out of the TM bowl - careful, they're hot!

Add all the other ingredients to the TM bowl and mix on speed 4 for 1 minute

Then.....

If onion mixture is now quite cold, add to the mixture in the TM bowl.  

IF onion mixture is HOT - Keep mixing the mixture in the TM bowl on 4, and add half of the hot onion mixture SLOWLY - then you can mix in the rest all at once.

Cook on 100oC for ????  This is where it gets tricky.  You need to have the mixture at 90oC for 4 mintues.  How long it takes to get there depends on what temperature the mixture is to begin with.

Mix it with 4-6 times water.  IE: 100g of paste + 400-600 of water = soup  

Or  3 tsp per cup for instant french onion goodness!

NOTES:

IMPORTANT: - why do the second lot of cooking - you know AFTER the onions are mixed with the stock mixture?  The flour!  If you are going to use it as an instant type of soup - it will taste VERY floury!!  If you are always going to use the concentrate in something that you have to COOK - I guess you might be able to miss that bit

•  French Onion Soup is supposed to be served in ramekins topped with cheesey bread or croutons - cooked in the oven - I would just toast the bread in the oven and put onto of soup.... but I'm not French!
• And, AS I'm not French and as a famous UNcelebrated  NON chef... have only had french onion soup out of packets and about one hour's research into French Onion Soup on the internet today -  I think this is DELICIOUS!!  But, I am open to suggestions
• This makes 2 litres of soup concentrate - now that's a LOT - feel free to half the recipe!!
  
• How long will it last in the fridge?  I have no idea - just an educated guess.  A guest chef once told a cooking class that she sautee's a kilo of onions and that they keep in the fridge for 3 weeks.  This has quite a bit of salt which will keep it even longer... I'm guessing 4-6 weeks in the fridge.  I have bottled the concentrate into 250ml jars and will only need to put in the fridge once they are open.