I always say if you want to seem like a genius in the kitchen just sauté some onions
I saw somewhere there exists a saying along the lines of 'start sauteing onion, add some garlic, then you figure out what you are going to cook.' When my wife and I have time to actually cook, this is basically what we do. everything is better with garlic and onions, from German to Korean. The rest is just details.
Apparently it's a Ukrainian saying
Having an Asian extended family, I think it's universal.
Absolutely universal because garlic and onion are amazing for any tongue.
And people who dislike garlic or onions are always super sus, because no the fuck you don’t. You just think you don’t like it.
I knew someone who said she was “allergic to onions if she could see them”… that is not how allergies work dumbfuck, you are just a super basic bitch with no taste.
I knew a guy who said he was allergic to diced or sliced tomatoes. Happily ate ketchup and red pasta sauce.
I usually start my meals by sauteing onions and without fail whoever is in the house will say "Ooo, that smells good what is it?"
Literally just onions
Saute carrots, onions, and celery. Everyone will think you're making something incredible. And, fortunately, you'll have the base to follow through, if you so desire.
I do need more dishes in the back of my pocket that start with mirepoix. If y'all got favs, pop a holler.
Got me thinking it's time for chicken pot pie again...
I use it for a lot of stuff. I roast pork on top of mirepoix, I make soups with it, pasta dishes, I make it alone with lots of butter and herbs and then blend it and use it as a rich sauce, I don't blend it and then serve it as a side with chicken and fish (adding rice is an option here), add bell peppers and make gumbo, use it as a base for braising basically anything... I do truly just start a mirepoix when I don't know what to make, then, once it's started, I dig around for other ingredients. It's so forgiving and really just makes almost anything more savory and flavorful.
The last time I made it (Saturday), I ended up transferring it to a roasting pan, then roasted pork. I took off the pork when it was done, then while it rested, I deglaced the pan with white wine, put a portion into a pot, added ketchup, vinegar, etc. and used an immersion blender to make a bbq-style mirepoix sauce. Shredded the pork and made pulled pork. It was a huge hit with the family. I know mirepoix-bbq sauce sounds a little weird, but it was incredibly good.
It's an very versatile base, which, I think, is why different food cultures all have a version of it. And you can do a lot of different things with the same base just by changing the technique. Smaller or larger chop, longer or shorter sautee, add ingredients to change the character (classically, tomato paste to make a pinçage, but you can also swap it to a Holy Trinity or sofrito very easily), and so on. It's a great thing to play around with.
Haha, I can cook but I don't really know what I am doing. It usually starts with some oil and garlic or onions in a pan, then I figure out what to actually cook. But if someone walks in at just that step they think you're some culinary genious.
Haha, I can cook but I don't really know what I am doing.
Bruh, don't sell yourself short. If you know how to just throw shit into a pan and have it come out both edible and tasty (or even only the first one), you have a decent idea of what you're doing.
Being able to do that is a skill that takes work, and is something my wife has worked hard to develop. He k, just knowing what spices go well together or with what meats is a skill in and of itself.
Best way to stop a small argument? Saute onions in olive oil then add some garlic. Guarantee a head will poke around a door frame and all arguments melt away.
So how do you do it?
I'm asking because I learned not a long time ago to somewhat heavily salt the onions beforehand (in olive oil ofc) and it's great. Burst for some minute or three, keep hot while stirring til done (hard, melted, ...).
I don't put garlic in it though, I'd put that in the rest of the food if I do.
I made a big batch yesterday (4 large onions).
Butter and olive oil. Add onions. I add water at the beginning so I don't have to pay as much attention as the beginning. Once the onions are soft, turn it low and take your time. Only stir occasionally.
I used the instant pot yesterday and it was super easy.
4 large onions
So, like, 6 tablespoons of caramelised onion?
Remember, it takes at least 45 minutes to caramelize an onion. If you're doing it for less than 45 minutes, then you're just cooking it.
45 minus to fully caramelize.
If you don't want them that dark you don't have to cook them that long.
Sure, you can use non-caramelized onions. You just won't get that sweetness.
I know you're joking, but the only way I can see it taking that long is if you put whole onions into an oven set to 180° to 200° F.
In a frying pan, one can easily caramelize an entire large frying pan of onions in about 30 minutes, or even faster if you decide to use physics to your advantage, and add a small amount of water to your pan and caramelize your pan of onions within 14 minutes. This is an advanced technique that requires some experience to try to use. Much like making a Dark Roux in 15 minutes.
I know it's not exactly the same as a low temp for a while. But you can get pretty good results with a high temp, just need to deglaze more frequently, usually with water until they're almost done. Then wine and/or balsamic is good.
I had someone arrive at a BBQ, saw me frying some onions, and ask "Are you going to caramelise those onions?"
Yes mate. The onions I'm frying for a few minutes while the burgers cook, gonna be nice and caramelised in seconds, just you watch.
Every time I do a Bunnings BBQ for the community centre, it's women run, we get the onions on ASAP because they need time to cook, and we'll have people buying a plain onion sandwich in addition to a snag, because caramelised onions are so good!
Every time I volunteer to help my partners football club run a sausage sizzle, I'm saying "put the onions on, they take longer" and I'm told by the guys "I'm a man, I know how to BBQ, go away little girl, go hold the sign and be pretty"
Then everyone buying a snag is complaining about crunchy raw onions, and the guys are saying "why did we buy so many onions?" (because you were supposed to cook them down so they shrink!)
These same men will unironically say "women belong in the kitchen" then won't take cooking advice from a woman.
(also, the footy guys always giving me flak for deglazing the BBQ plate with water to help the onions cook down faster. They'll just keep adding oil, once saw a Rotary Club use 1L of canola oil to half cook 5kg of onions, when we've never needed more than 200ml to fully cook onions, because onions need water to cook down!)
Little Anon Starting Early
I have a 3 year old nephew and if you gave him a caramel onion like that I think he'd either eat it happily or ask for a plain onion instead. That kid loves himself some onions.
30 minutes
https://youtu.be/Ovqhzil3wJw?feature=shared
We start our caramelized onions in a covered nonstick skillet over high heat with ¾ of cup water. The water and steam help the onions quickly soften. Then we remove the lid, lower the heat to medium-high, and press the softened onions into the bottom and sides of the skillet to allow for maximum contact with the hot pan. Instead of finishing with sugar or honey as many recipes call for, we add baking soda, which speeds up the reaction that converts flavorless inulin (a polysaccharide present in onions) to fructose.
My face smells like onions for 3 days straight after cooking something with onions for more than 20 minutes. It should be much more terrible to have just onions in the pan
Gonna hand out caramel onions for Halloween now.
Caramel roulette. 5 apples and an onion on the same plate.
They better be Spanish/yellow onions. Don't go easy on them with any Vidalia/sweet onion!
:P
Hey guys. I am no cook and I don't speak English natively. What the heck is caramelising onions?
I thought caramelising is when the sugar liquifies and you get caramel. So caramelising onions would be to cover them in lots of sugar and cooking them until they are covered in caramel.
But it sounds like you are just deep roasting them.
The sugar in the onion is caramelising
It's just a process of slowly cooking them on a low heat, they'll naturally go quite sweet after a while without having to add sugar.
It's just slowly cooking chopped onions in a pan until they are a deep brown and very soft and sweet. If you've ever had french onion soup, that's basically just caramelized onions in broth.
Caramelization is the process of sugars browning due to high heat. The actual reactions that are happening is a combination of sugars and their chains breaking down into smaller compounds and those smaller compounds recombining into other compounds, all these new compounds gives caramelized foods their distinctive colour and taste.
When making caramel the sugar liquification happens often in high enough temperatures for caramelization to occur. The process of sauteeing/high temperature cooking onions long enough involves the same exact reactions. In onions the bit longer chain sugars that dont taste sweet are broken down into simple sugars thus producing the sweet taste of caramelized onions and the further reactions produce the caramel colour and taste.
Tldr: caramelization is a group of chemical reactions and 'caramel' is basically a taste and colour that results from it
Y'all, pinch of baking soda and you'll have caramelized onions in no time flat. It's amazing.
You can caramelize onions in five minutes, but the onions won't be very satisfied afterwards
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