Gratinée (aka au gratin) is a french term for sprinkled with breadcrumbs or grated cheese, or both, and browned. The traditional way you would eat french onion soup. With all that goodness on top. Otherwise it's just a soup.
Some recipes call for 2 tbsp of cooking sherry or brandy but it's not necessary.
INGREDIENTS
- 15–20 thin slices of baguette
- 3 tbsp of unsalted butter
- 2-3 medium onions, thinly sliced
- 6 cups of homemade chicken stock (or low-salt canned chicken broth)
- 1/2 tsp of salt (adjust to your taste)
- 1/2 tsp of freshly ground black pepper
- 2 cups of grated cheese
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Arrange the bread slices on a cookie sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until browned. Remove from the oven and set aside. (Leave the oven on.) Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onions and sauté for 15 minutes, or until dark brown.
- Add the stock, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil and cook for 20 minutes. Push the soup through a food mill.
- Arrange one third of the toasted bread in the bottom of an ovenproof soup tureen or large casserole. Sprinkle with some of the cheese, then add the remaining bread and more cheese, saving enough to sprinkle over the top of the soup. Fill the tureen with the hot soup, sprinkle the reserved cheese on top, and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 35 minutes, or until a golden crust forms on top.
- At serving time, bring the soup to the table. Combine the yolks with the port in a deep soup plate and whip with a fork. With a ladle, make a hole in the top of the gratinée, pour in the wine mixture, and fold into the soup with the ladle. Stir everything together and serve.