Blond in the Hood

French Onion Soup (Pouilly sur Loir Style)

Serves 6

Equipment
8 Quart covered pan
4 Quart covered casserole
Large Oven poof soup tureen (or individual soup tureens)

Beef Stock
Ingredients
5 lbs beef marrow bones
3 lbs Beef Chuck cut into 3" cubes
1½ tbl spoons salt
5 peppercorns
4-6 cloves
1½ large onion peeled
2 carrots peeled and trimmed
2 stalks of celery
2-3 small leeks
1 bay leaf
½ teaspoon thyme
2 sprigs parsley

Method
Place marrow bones in boiling water and cook for five minutes. Remove from the heat and drain well.

Place all the marrow bones and the meat into an 8 quart pot. Add 3 quarts of water to the pot and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce the heat and as the foam and fat rises to the surface, skim off the residue. Continue this until all the foam ceases to rise.

Add the salt, pepercorns, cloves and onions to the pot. Trim and clean the leeks (Split them lenght wise down the center, without cutting all the way through. Then run cold water over them to wash out the dirt) Cut into 2 inch sections and add to the pot. Add the remainder of the ingredients.

Cover and Simmer for four hours. Remove from the heat and strain the mixture through a double thickness of cheesecloth, the meat may be retained for usage later. If a stronger flavor is required then you can reduce the stock by allowing it to simmer uncovered until it attains the required flavor.

Cool the stock quickly (place pot in cold water or place outside if cold enough) The fat remaining in the stock should solidify on top, skim this fat off the stock.

(A much simpler way is to use canned beef stock from the super market.)