ONION SOUP

Ingredients

• 2 tots butter
• 1 tot olive oil
• 1 kg onions (we used brown onions, halved and sliced thinly)
• 1/2 cup dry sherry
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped and crushed
• salt and pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• 1.5 L good quality chicken or beef stock
• salt and pepper
• 1 fresh baguette, sliced and toasted on the fire, topped with grated cheese

Method

1. Place your potjie on the fire and get very mild and gentle heat going. Add the butter and olive oil to your potjie.
2. Add all of the onions into the potjie and start to cook them. This should go slowly and you should take your time. In an ideal world, if you cook the onions for 1 hour, that will be the best. 30 minutes will do, but you are looking at soft sweet onions that have released all their sugars and taste. So make sure your fire is not too hot and you just have a few mild coals under your potjie to get the onions to the end.
3. After cooking the onions in the oil and butter over gentle heat for 1 hour, add the sherry and let this cook off for about 5 minutes.
4. Add the garlic, bay leaves and thyme and let this fry for 1 minute.
5. Next add all of your stock and let this simmer gently for 20 -30 minutes with the lit on the potjie. Taste and season with extra salt and pepper if needed.
6. While the soup is simmering, slice your baguette into slices, and lightly toast on the fire. Gently place the bread on top of the onion soup into the potjie, top each bread with a bit of grated cheese, place the lid back on and wait 5 minutes until the cheese is melted.
7. Serve your soup in bowls topped with the bread!