hi,
OK, made approx 2-3 litres of soup out of 5 lb onions and 7 large heads of garlic. The method is simple if tedious. Don't burn the garlic. Adjust garlic to taste, you could use 10 heads if the fancy takes you. I dunno if this is the 'proper way' to make garlic soup. All I know is that it is how I make it.
A lot of the time in making it is spent making the onion soup base. Other people make it using a beef bullion as a base, but I've never wanted to do that.
Get together 2 pans - a frying pan, and a, I dunno, a soup pan? My soup pan holds about 2 gallons. Chop the onions into medium sized chunks, about 1/2 to 3/4 inch square.
In batches, brown the onions in either butter or groundnut oil. I used groundnut because butter is more difficult. Might be easier with actual ghee. Don't burn the onions, but the browner you can get them without burning the better. This is where the colour of your soup will come from. As each batch is done, transfer with a slotted spoon to the soup pan. When you're all done with the onion frying, deglaze any bits stuck to the bottom with water or sherry and add to the soup pan.
In the soup pan, make up to approx 2.5 litres with water. Roughly crack about 3 tablespoons of black peppercorns, add to the pot. Add about a tablespoon of celery salt. Bring to the boil, simmer for an hour or so. At this stage, I mashed the onion bits with a masher. You will evaporate off a fair bit of liquid, the reduced volume will make mashing easier. Then I added more salt - adjust this to your taste. You want it reasonably salty, a bit like a broth. it should be golden brown/brown at this point. I added a teaspoon of turmeric. This is your base soup.
Now with regards to the garlic you can either roast the peeled cloves in the oven or do what I did which was give the garlic the same treatment as the onions, except I squashed the cloves with a knife before frying. It is very important not to burn the garlic, or it will taste ugh. You want to fry it so that it is at the stage where it is liberating its aroma, then add to the soup pot.
Simmer it and keep tasting it. You may need to boil hard to reduce or add water depending on your tastes. I added even more sherry
You'll want to mash the garlic bits every so often.
Once it tastes great, you want to filter it through a fine gauze. it can be frozen and used later. I've cooked pork in it before.
I don't know how it will turn out with oak smoked garlic. let me know