sprinklefingers

i can’t believe i’m going to say this, but, sometimes i just want a huge salad for dinner. 

generally i arrive to work at 4am. sometimes 4:15. or 4:17. in order to make this possible, my alarm goes off at 3:30am. at this time of the morning (which is, basically, still night,) the last thing i want to do is think about packing a lunch. because of this, right around 9am everyday i eat a cookie. and then perhaps a few bites of a tart. and then maybe a bit of pie. all of this adds up to trouble. delicious trouble, yes, but still trouble.

to make a loooong and butter-filled story short, because of all the eating i do at work, sometimes i just need a salad. 

thankfully the world of salad is so vast and so tasty - coming up with something perfect (and fast) is never difficult. sometimes i simply throw together some greens and a bit of veg and call it good, other times i get a bit more complicated. but one thing is true: the more effort you put into a salad, the more delicious it is. homemade dressings, roasted vegetables, grilled protein - all of it can add up to a dinner that’s much more than just a salad. 

one thing i love in salad is an onion. but a raw onion is sometimes too powerful for me. and a grilled onion? sometimes i just don’t want to fire up the grill. a roasted onion? same thing…after working an oven most of the day at work, i sometimes prefer my evenings to be oven-free.

thankfully the amazing michael ruhlman has an answer to my onion-in-salad conundrum: behold the blanched onion.

in all my years of salad eating, i have never thought to blanch an onion. blanching takes the sharpness out of the onion leaving behind the sweetness…and an onion of perfect texture for a salad. you really, really should try it. really.

blanched onions

you need: 

• 2 large yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced
• very icy ice bath

blanch the onions: 

1. bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. (hint: use more salt than you think you should, and your onions will be perfectly seasoned.)
2. add the onion slices to the boiling water and boil for one full minute.
3. remove the onions from the water and plunge into the prepared ice bath.
4. let the onions sit in the ice bath for two minutes, then remove to a paper towel-lined plate.
5. make a salad! use these onions! and if you don’t use them all, they’ll hold over in the fridge perfectly.

ah, onions. the cornerstone of so many culinary delights.

last week i had an overabundance of onions - first i forgot that i already had 3 at home, and i bought 3 more at the market. next, my friend mrs. jeffers gave me a few plucked straight from her garden. then, as luck would have it, another friend gave me several more because she was going out of town and couldn’t use them (what? onions last forever! but, whatever, i’ll take them. thanks!)

much like the old lady who lives in a shoe, i had so many children onions i didn’t know what to do (forgive me. we’re on a big nursery rhyme kick at our house…) so i cooked them down and made a delightful onion-balsamic chutney/spread/pizza topping. you should really try this. no, really.

balsamic onions

you need:

• all your spare onions - say, 10-12.
• olive oil
• butter
• balsamic vinegar
• 1-2 T sugar
• 1 t kosher salt

to prepare:

preheat oven to 300
haul out a lidded dutch oven

1. halve & peel your onions then chop them into larger bite sized pieces.
2. put the onions in the dutch oven.
3. drizzle olive oil over the top of the onions.
4. dot the onions with a bit of butter.
5. drizzle balsamic vinegar over the top of the onions.
6. sprinkle in sugar.
7. sprinkle in salt.

place lid on dutch oven and bake onions for 2 hours. after 2 hours, check on them - stir them around a bit, make sure they aren’t burning & sticking to the sides of the pot. return pot to the oven and let bake until onions are soft & melty…this could take another hour.

yes, i realize there are no measurements here for the oil, butter, vinegar. but you don’t need them. as long as you don’t drown your onions in oil or vinegar, you’ll be fine. just use your judgment knowing they’ll be in the oven for a while doing their slowcooking thing. you can do this. you can!

once the onions have finished cooking, scoop them into a glass jar and store in the fridge. eat on everything: salads, turkey sandwiches, pizza, crackers, cheese slices. these onions can hang out in the fridge for a month or so. they can also be frozen - just divvy up into manageable portions and freeze…thaw before using (unless you plop them into a soup…yum!)