cgraham, my cooking has changed a lot since I had kids, I only cook what they will eat, and they are meat-and-potato guys. One thing they love, and I make it every holiday (Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years and Easter) is caramelized onions. The hard part is selecting them, I usually buy 4 or 5 pounds, and go from grocery store to grocery store, picking through the baskets of small onions, cherry-picking ones that are about 1.5" in diameter so that they all cook at the same rate. I don't buy the plastic baskets of creamer onions, which cost an arm and a leg. The second hardest part is peeling them all, this is at least a two-person job. Cut off the root ends. The peels cling like tissue paper. My husband likes to dip them in boiling water, or microwave them briefly, but I don't like that because it makes them hot.
I use a ceramic/cast iron Le Crueset dutch oven, pour in olive oil and butter, and slowly saute the whole, peeled onions, until they are dark brown all over. You give them a stir, go do something else, and then come back, because if you keep stirring them they won't brown. I then cover them with beef broth, stir the pot with a wooden spatula to make sure that nothing that will burn is stuck to the bottom, and put the lid on slightly ajar, and lower the heat even more. They are done when they are tender, the broth should cook down and turn syrupy. I serve them in a gravy boat, people spoon them over roast beef and mashed potatoes. Everyone loves them.
I also make very good pies, yeast rolls, and fruit salad, but that's another story.
CobaltBlue |
