French soup onion

A former colleague of mine passed a recipe like this one on to me some time ago.  It's been so long since I made it, though, I've forgotten a few details.  I'm filling in the blanks with a recipe from here, which came up in a Google search for something else (it looks like there are some other interesting ideas there, too)


Start with one single large onion, white or yellow, peeled.  Cut the bottom just so it sits flat, but don't remove too much; it should still hold itself together when it's done.


Cut a divot from the top and place a beef bullion cube in the hole.  I crushed mine so it would dissolve more readily from the juices that will sweat out of the onion.  Maybe it wasn't necessary, but it didn't hurt anything.


Sprinkle Parmesan or another hard cheese over the top of the onion.  Don't use the powder in a can or anything else that has an anti-caking agent in it; it will burn rather than melt, leaving you with nothing but the bitter taste of regret, and most of an onion.  I recommend a shaved cheese; it will be more stable on the onion's convex surface until you can get it in the oven.


Speaking of which, you should have preheated yours to 400ºF between the time you made an ingredient list and the time you peeled that onion.


The Fat Free Vegan whence I spliced in instructions to cover the steps I'd forgotten says "Bake them until tender and slightly caramelized around the edges, about 45 minutes."  I seem to remember not having the onion in the oven for quite that long, but if you like slight caramelization, then go for 45 minutes; if not, pull it out after 30.


When it's done, you should have a well-done onion with a nice, gooey cap of melted cheese over maybe a tablespoon of French onion soup broth.  Mmm, smells delicious.

So after removing it from the oven, you...I don't know.  Apparently I thought that a way to serve the onion would be self evident, because I didn't think to ask my friend what he did with it.  I ended up putting it in a bowl, slicing it into bite size pieces with the edge of my fork, and just snacking on cheesy, beefy onion wedges.  Although the cheese didn't adhere very well, what with all the juice that came out, it was pretty tasty until I ended up with lukewarm, translucent onion bits at the bottom of the bowl.

Work in progress, I guess.  I'm open to suggestions.