Onions Play Well On the Mandoline

Whether you want to call it French or Freedom onion soup, sometimes onion soup just seems to hit the spot. But onion soup can be discouraging to make. You slice what seems to be an endless number of onions, crying all the while. But with a little practice on a mandoline, you can slice onions in any width with enough speed to minimize the tears.

Some try to avoid tears by using fresh or sweet onions. There are two groups in the sweet onion category. Young onions, which are pulled before they have a chance to make a bulb, are called scallions, spring onions, salad onions, or bunching onions.

Other fresh onions look like large, globe onions, but are labeled sweet and are named for their origin. This group includes Vidalias, Mauis, and Walla Wallas. Sweet onions have a high moisture content and are quite perishable - they should be refrigerated. These onions are best used raw, or for quick cooking techniques like grilling, sautéing, or high temperature roasting.

Good onion soup needs the stronger dry/storage onions. There are three common types, each with different potency levels. The mildest is the red or Bermuda onion; slightly stronger is the large, whitish Spanish onion. The most pungent is the common yellow or globe onion. These onions should not be refrigerated, but kept in a cool, dry place. Dried onions are best for long term cooking, i.e. simmering, braising, or stewing, when some of their starch converts to sugars, developing a complex, slightly sweet flavor.

For onion soup, you will need a lot of yellow onions. The first challenge is to remove the outside papery skin, which can be obstinate. A fast method is to drop the onions in boiling water for 5 minutes, drain, and put in ice water. The most expedient method, however, is to peel off the entire outer layer, including the skin. You may need an extra onion, but onions are so inexpensive this is a small price to pay.

The more difficult challenge is not to cry. If you're cutting only a few onions, freeze them for 15 or so minutes before slicing. Alternatively, slice the onions under running water, although I find this awkward. You might also try swimming goggles. But the real answer is speed - the faster onions are sliced and put in a bowl with a covering towel, the less you will tear.

To speedily slice onions, there is the food processor option, which I dislike. Slicing thickness is limited to the disk that came with the machine, large onions have to be cut just to fit them in the feeder tube, and the bowl of even the largest processor seems to fill up with just a few onions.

For my money, the best way to beautifully slice onions is the mandoline. The mandoline is a flat, rectangular tool usually a foot long and four inches wide, with a stand used to raise one end. About two-thirds down the surface there is a blade the width of the tool. Food is slid over the blade. A knob raises or lowers the blade to adjust the cutting width. Most mandolines come with flat blades for simple slicing, and also blades to make waffle cuts or julienne sticks.

Mandolines have two drawbacks. You can really cut your fingers; most machines come with hand guards. Also, quality stainless steel mandolines are expensive. The finest can cost over $150.00; Williams Sonoma sells one for $169.00. However, Chef's catalog is currently selling a $100 mandoline priced for $60. The Japanese make less expensive, similar tools which are designed to lay on top of a bowl, but I find these awkward to handle and less adjustable.

With a mandoline, the following French onion soup recipe can be executed with minimal tearing. Makes 6 servings:

§         4 Tablespoons unsalted butter

§         3 ½ pounds yellow onions, sliced 1/8 thick (approx. 7 large onions)

§         salt and pepper, to taste

§         2 teaspoons flour

§         1 cup vermouth

§         8 cups beef broth

§         4 sprigs thyme

§         10 parsley stems

§         1 bay leaf

§         1 French baguette, sliced 3/8

§         6 ounces gruyere cheese, grated

In a large, wide soup pot, melt the butter over medium low heat. Add the onions and season lightly with salt and pepper. Cook the onions gently, stirring frequently, until they're very soft and have begun to turn a dark straw color, 35 - 45 minutes. Meanwhile, tie the thyme, parsley and bay leaf together.

When the onions are ready, stir in the flour and cook for 3 - 4 minutes. Pour in the vermouth, turn the heat to medium high, stir and scrape the pot, and reduce the liquid almost entirely, 5 - 8 minutes. Add the broth, toss in the herb bundle, and bring to a simmer. Taste for salt and pepper, and simmer the soup for 30 minutes.

Toast the baguette slices lightly. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Set ovenproof soup crocks on a heavy baking sheet. After removing the herb bundle, ladle the soup into the crocks. Float a few toasted baguette slices on top of the soup.Top the bread with a handful of the grated Gruyere. Slide the baking sheet into the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and just browning.