Recipes: Thick onion soup with cheese croutons | Onion and parsley sauce

We tend to take onions for granted. Yet as one who cooked for a few years to include an individual who claimed an onion allergy, I can say with feeling how completely restricted onion-free cooking is. Onions give so much flavour to whatever they are in, whether it’s a soup, stew or sauce. They are simply invaluable. They are also simply revolting when cut up and left, even for a short time, before cooking. Air taints any member of the onion family – whether garlic, leeks or spring-onions – and the only way to prevent this is by frying the onions (or leeks or whatever) or by immersing them in olive oil, as in the case of crushed or diced garlic. When using a tiny amount of raw onion in a salad, choose the milder and sweeter-tasting red onion, though if you soak the diced onion in lemon juice for five minutes before rinsing in cold water and patting dry with kitchen paper, it tastes even better.

Here are three recipes which I find invaluable and are loved by the whole family. As an added bonus, onions are extremely good for us, as they are said to help boost our immune systems.

• Thick onion soup with cheese croutons

This is a meal in a bowl. The amount of onions appears vast, once they are prepared, but they subside in quantity as they cook.

SERVES 6

3 tablespoons olive oil

9 onions, of medium size, each skinned, halved and diced neatly – if you possess an Alligator vegetable dicer this takes about 30 seconds

¼ pint/140ml red wine

1½ pint/850ml stock – use a good substitute in the absence of the real thing, like Marigold stock powder

a grating of nutmeg, about 20 grinds of black pepper, and 1 teaspoon salt

For the croutons

6 slices of bread, crusts off and toasted on one side

8oz/225g grated cheese – I use Isle of Mull cheddar

Heat the olive oil in a large, wide-based sauté pan and fry the diced onions, stirring occasionally to make sure that they cook evenly, for about 20 minutes, over moderately high heat – not so high that the onions turn brown at their edges, they should remain un-coloured.

Then add the red wine and let it bubble for a minute before pouring in the stock. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, and tip the contents of the sauté pan into a saucepan, and let the soup simmer, very gently, the pan half covered with its lid, for 15 minutes. The need for the initial frying in the sauté pan is that you then have a wide space so the onions do fry, instead of steaming, heaped in a saucepan, from the start – the flavour is so much better.

While the soup simmers (it can be made in advance and reheated to serve, when it actually improves in flavour) make the croutons. Divide the grated cheese evenly between the crustless slices of bread, on the untoasted side. Cover your grill pan with foil, and toast the cheese on the bread till the cheese melts.

When cool enough to handle, slice into 1in/2.5cm sized bits, and, when you serve the soup, float these cheese croutons on each serving.

• Onion and parsley sauce

This is delicious with meats, especially lamb.

SERVES 6

4-5 medium sized onions, each skinned and diced

1oz/28g butter

½ fat clove of garlic, skinned and diced finely

1 level tablespoons flour

just over ½ pint/310ml milk

a grating of nutmeg, ½ teaspoon salt, about 10 grinds of black pepper

1oz/28g parsley, tough stalks discarded and the parsley chopped finely

Steam the onions till soft, then steam them with the lid off for a minute – this is much better than cooking them in water as the onion doesn’t get soggy.

Meanwhile, melt the butter over moderate heat and add the finely diced garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes before stirring in the flour. Cook for a further couple of minutes then, stirring all the time, add the milk, a little at a time. When all the milk is added let it bubble gently for a minute, then draw the pan off the heat and stir in the nutmeg, salt and black pepper. Add the steamed onions and mix thoroughly – you can do this up to this point several hours in advance. Cover the surface of the onions in the sauce, and store in a cool place. Before reheating, in the saucepan, remove the cover, and heat till gently bubbling. Stir in the finely chopped parsley just before tipping the contents of the saucepan into a warmed serving dish, to serve.

• Sweet and sour shallots

This is particularly good as an accompaniment for venison. These shallots are also good with either Parma or roasted ham.

SERVES 6

12 banana shallots – these are the long, violet-hued shallots. Or use 18 small, round shallots

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ pint/285ml stock – I use Marigold, or any other good stock substitute for this

1 teaspoon salt

½ pint/285ml good quality balsamic vinegar

Peel the shallots, and if they are very large, halve them lengthwise, and put them into a roasting tin with the olive oil and salt. Shake the pan, to ensure the shallots are coated thinly with the oil, and roast in a hot oven, 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6, for 20 minutes. Then add the stock to the shallots in the roasting tin, and the balsamic vinegar, and lower the heat in the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4, and cook, shaking the pan twice during cooking, to move around the shallots in the liquid, and bake for 1 hour. Take them out of the oven and cool them in the remaining liquid. Much of the liquid will evaporate during cooking time – it is meant to.

Serve the shallots, in the remaining liquid, cooled but not chilled from the fridge.

Recipes: Thick onion soup with cheese croutons | Onion and parsley sauce | Sweet and sour shallots