Serves 8, or 6 if main course.
Melt butter in a Dutch oven, and add onions and salt. Let onions sweat down a little, then stir. Cook for 25 minutes, or until onions are a rich caramel color, stirring occasionally. When the onions are cooked down, add the wine, and turn heat to high. Reduce the wine to a syrupy consistency. Add consommé, chicken broth, apple cider, and bay leaves. Reduce heat, and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.
Slice French bread into half-inch-thick slices, and trim edges to neatly fit soup bowls, and toast them at 350º in the oven for about 15 minutes, until they are dry crusts. Place oven rack in top third of oven, and heat broiler.
Remove bay leaves from soup. Season with salt, pepper, and brandy (if desired). Ladle soup into ovenproof bowls, filling each to about an inch from the top. Place a toast slice in each bowl, and top with grated cheeses. Broil until cheese is bubbly and golden, one to two minutes. Serves 8, or 6 if main course.
This article and recipes by Erica Derr first appeared in the January 2006 issue of Our State.
print it
To commemorate our 90th anniversary, we’ve compiled a time line that highlights the stories, contributors, and themes that have shaped this magazine — and your view of the Old North State — using nine decades of our own words.
From its northernmost point in Corolla to its southern terminus on Cedar Island, this scenic byway — bound between sound and sea — links the islands and communities of the Outer Banks.
Us? An icon? Well, after 90 years and more than 2,000 issues celebrating North Carolina from mountains to coast, we hope you’ll agree that we’ve earned the title.
After nearly a century — or just a couple of years — these seafood restaurants have become coastal icons, the places we know, love, and return to again and again.
