Gratinert løksuppe, Gratinée des Halles

I have a huge blue book about French cooking. Yesterday morning I started to look though it in search of recipes, or rather in search of inspiration, as I seldom follow the recipes when I cook. I am more a find the way as I walk person. I was going downtown later in the day and was making a grocery list. But the more I looked, the more tempted I was of French cooking, and almost booked a ticket to France :-)..... Well, in the end I decided to go for a very simple, very tasty gratinated onion soup, Gratinée des Halles.

Again and again I discover that the best food is often the simple food. With few but the best ingredients, where each item added shows off her best. Onion soup is a very good example. We had this soup as a starter last night, and it felt rich enough to be a full meal.

Løksuppe / Gratinée des Halles

one onion

5dl water

extra virgin olive oil

salt

pepper

toast

cheese

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slice the onion and fry it in the olive oil. Add the water and let it boil for 30 minutes

add salt and pepper

fill two soupbowls, top the soup with 4 pieces of small slices of toast and cheese

put in hot oven for about 10 minutes

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After the New Year's concert from Wien I discovered that I did not have any Johann Strauss in my music collection. With amazon it was easy to do something with that, and last week Die Fledermaus came in the mail.

The onion soup tasted even better with Gabril von Eisenstein, Rosalinde, Alfred, Adele and the others from Die Fledermaus singing in the background :-)

Carrot Soup

Marta's handball practice starts at 4pm two days a week. She has 90 minutes from school ends and till she has to be in the sports hall, and during this time she must walk home from school, change clothes, make herself something to eat and walk to the sports hall. She has been quite good at making herself (and often a friend) some healthy snacks , but is very happy when she can come home from school to a ready dinner. I must go back to work tonight for a meeting, but was able to come home early to make a light dinner for the two of us before her handball. She was very happy when she heard that I would make one of her favorite soups - carrot soup (or sometimes called tomato soup)

Since we have so many carrots still from the sack we bought from a local farmer a few weeks ago, today's version is a carrot soup with the orange colours dominating. The soup consists of olive oil, onion, cellery, carrots, water, salt, pepper, saffron and a finishing touch of white wine.

Braise onion and cellery in olive oil, cut the carrots into thin slices and add (cut the tomato into boats and add, or leave the tomato). Add salt, and after braising for a few minutes cover the vegetables with water. Add more salt, some pepper and saffron to give a warm, yellow colour. Let boil for about 15 minutes. Add a glass of white wine and boil two more second if you are going to use the car in the afternoon. Never any alcohol in connection with driving here in The Blue Café

Serve the soup topped with "rømme" (sour cream) and eat with bread dipped in balsamic vinegar or butter and salt.

Left overs can be eaten for supper with more bread.