Caramelized onion soup (gluten free French onion soup :)

I might be expelled from Le Cordon Bleu -my school- making a French soup without cheese and bread. I just don't find it practical to eat the soggy bread. The core of the soup is caramelized onions and beef broth; it's earthy, almost sweet and very satisfying. If you want to have bread and cheese, make a grilled cheese and dip it to the soup just like a French dip sandwich, much easier to eat. Before making the soup, here are a few notes.

• You need to use a pot with the largest surface area for faster results, and adjust the amount of onion/broth accordingly. In this recipe, I am using 8 pounds of onions, because that's what my largest/widest dutch oven Le Creuset #30(9 quarts) can hold.

• It took me about 3 hours to reduce it to the dark brown phase of the onion -see pics below-. At the end it was reduced from 8 pound to 17 oz ( about the 8th of its original weight).

• I make the soup a bit thicker than others using 1 pound onion to a 1 cup stock ratio. Start with this, you can always add more stock to thin it later.

• You can add croutons"at the table" for crunch, if you want. I used toasted almonds, but really was not necessary.

• This is one of the dishes that I use a lot of freshly cracked coarse white peppers, try if you have

• I make my own stock when I can, but there is one brand I don't mind using. It can be found in Costco in chicken, beef and vegetarian flavours - picture at the bottom.

Ingredients

• 8 pounds of Maui, vidalia or other white onions, sliced thinly

• 8 cups of reduced sodium beef stock

• 4 tablespoons butter

• 3-4 tablespoons olive oil

• 4 tablespoons sherry or madeira

• 4 bay leaves

• 4 star anise

Directions

• In a heavy, large dutch oven heat the butter and oil over medium heat

• Add the star anise, and the onions and cook slowly stirring with a wooden spoon every few minutes - do not use high heat. Depends on how much surface area you are covering and how much onion you have this will take 1.5 to 3 hours, don't rush it

• Once they are all same brown, coppery color and reduced to almost nothing, add the stock and scrape the bottom of the pan

• Add the bay leaves and bring the soup to a boil, turn it down to lowest heat, and let it simmer for an hour or longer without the lid- you can make a day ahead if you want.

• Turn it off, add sherry and mix well.

• Discard bay leaves and star anise, season to taste with salt and pepper