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SFist in the Kitchen: Onions
We know how it is with onions. You treat them as kitchen staples, something to throw on the shelf until you need an aromatic for the saute pan. You take them for granted.
But in the cold snap of winter, root vegetables come to the front. Gone are the vibrant, ripe tastes of summer produce; gone are the warm, mellow flavors of fall. The intense, peppery taste of vegetables on sale at farmers' markets reflects the tough-as-nails personality that plants need in order to survive against the cold wind and dim light. Yellow and white onions, overlooked and unappreciated, make up key components of many of our favorite December dishes.
Test kitchen photographer Melissa likes to eat onions raw and wriggling, but the rest of the kitchen staff has a hard time with that dietary choice. We prefer to slow-cook lengthwise cuts of onions, softening them in plenty of fat over low heat. This removes the eye-stinging sulfur compounds that appear as the cut onion oxidizes, and allows the root's natural sugar to come to the surface.
Photos by Melissa Schneider
Use half a stick of butter and low heat to caramelize two sliced onions over the course of 45 minutes to an hour, or use one and a half cups of oil to poach two cut onions over low heat. In the first case, the onions will brown and wilt without crisping. In the second, the onions will retain their shape and color, but will be tender and flavorful. Both can be stored for a few days in the refrigerator, ready to adorn any dish
Of course, before you cook the onions, you have to cut them, a task that brings tears to our eyes. If you wear contact lenses, you should be fairly safe from the billows of gas coming off the onion. If you don't wear contacts, we've seen a suggestion to wear swim goggles as you slice. They're not the most stylish of chef accessories, but they do keep your eyes safe from the sulfur. A good posture that keeps your eyes far from the cutting surface will help, but you'll still be weeping by the end.
Once we dried our eyes the other night, we used onion confit on a quick-to-assemble tart. We rolled out a piece of puff pastry (Darfour or another all-butter brand if you don't make your own) and sprinkled it with grated Appenzeller cheese. We added thin slices of Fatted Calf's petit jambon, and then topped the tart with onion confit. We cooked it at 425° until the crust turned a deep brown and the onions' tips blackened, about 15 minutes. The tart draws its inspiration from an Alsatian dish, and the breathtaking white wines from that region would be a good match with the dish. We drank a Mosel Riesling, which has a similar acidity and mouthwatering flavor, both of which counteract the salty ham and cheese and the rich crust.
We use caramelized onions alongside many roast meats, but few dishes show off these limp brown tendrils better than French Onion Soup, the quintessential meal for the winter months. Heat good-quality beef stock, and season to taste with salt and maybe a little vinegar. Add caramelized onions to a bowl, pour the beef stock over them, place a piece of stale bread over the liquid, and top the bowl with slices of good Gruy`re. Heat in the broiler until the cheese has melted into a bubbly sheet, mottled with brown splotches. Serve this soup with a light, fruity red wine, such as a Beaujolais (not a Nouveau but a regular wine from the region).
How do you like to showcase onions? Let us know in the comments.