Caramelized Onions
I think Erma Bombeck wrote a story about making her husband think that dinner was cooking by taking an onion and putting it in a 350° oven 15 minutes before he got home. This recipe is even better but it takes a little longer. I really believe that I could make the family believe that Spam on toast was a gourmet meal if I started by caramelizing onions.
I first ate these at one of the trendy restaurants in town and liked them so much I spent the next two years learning how to make them myself. At the restaurant, the caramelized onions were quickly deep fat fried and used as a garnish for polenta (see recipe in this book) and Italian sausage. I like them better without the deep-fat step. Once you get it right, just sautéing onions will no longer be enough.
Ingredients:
2-3 lg yellow onions. (These new-fangled 10-15 and Vidalia varieties are OK for eating raw, but to make great caramelized onions use the strongest, toughest varieties you can find.)
1 tbs olive oil
3-6 clvs fresh garlic, finely minced
Instructions:
Cut the onions into thin circles or strips. Put the oil in a heavy skillet (Mama - Nana’s cast iron pan is the very best, but I will not give it back - so just make do.) Put the onions in the pan and cook, covered, at very low heat for 1-2 hours. The heat is right when you can hear the onions “whispering” to you as they cook (great cooking requires all of your senses - not just taste.) DO NOT BROWN the onions. Add the garlic the last 15-30 minutes of cooking, and remove the lid. If you cook them slowly, you will dehydrate the onion and convert much of the complex carbohydrates into simple sugars (a bit of kitchen chemistry - sorry.) Correctly caramelized onions will be limp, about the color of Krystalyn’s hair and a delicious bitter-sweet flavor that cannot be described in words.
What do you do with them?
Serve directly as a garnish for a great steak. Use them as a beginning to a fantastic pasta sauce.
One of my favorite dishes begins with caramelizing the onions and removing them from the pan. Wipe the pan clean with a paper towel. Add a dab of olive oil. Saute bell peppers (multiple colors are best) for about 5 minutes. Add 2 tbs flour and cook another 5 minutes. Add 1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms, 1 tsp dried oregano (or 1/4 cup fresh), 1 tbs dried basil (or 1/4 cup fresh) and a couple of bay leaves. Lightly saute the mushrooms for another 5 minutes. Add 1 can condensed skim milk (not the sweetened variety.) Cook until slightly thickened (about 5 minutes.) Return the onions to the mixture and serve over warm pasta.