"caramelized onions" news and stories

Caramelized onions are a versatile, delicious kitchen staple. Here's a foolproof technique.

Turkey, Blue Cheese and Caramelized Onion Tart. Photo: Sarah LeTrent.

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Despite appearances, tarts are quite rudimentary to assemble. Plus they are a simple and elegant way to use up your leftovers. When I found my refrigerator stocked with a lone baked turkey breast, blue cheese and an onion, the endless versatility of tarts struck a cord of culinary inspiration.

Seems like caramelized onions and pungent cheese -- be it blue, Roquefort or gorgonzola -- have an affinity for one another in many recipes. This savory tart is no exception: The sweetness of the onions is absolutely ambrosial with tangy fromage bleu. And while turkey tends to be overlooked in months that don't end in "ember," it is used here as a protein-packed topping.

Recipe after the jump.

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Caramelizing Onions from Simply Recipes on Vimeo.

There are few meals I make that don't in some way involve onions. I add red or sweet ones to salads for crunch. When I saute greens, I almost always start by softening slivered yellow onion in some olive oil, in order to give the chard or kale a flavor partner. They go in all my soups, stews, braises and roasts. And, when I want a real treat, I'll caramelize them down to a puddle of dark, sweet onion jam that goes amazingly well on sandwiches, pizzas or even just on top of a cracker.

Elise at Simply Recipes posted a tutorial yesterday on how to make caramelized onions that is helpful for the beginnger and a good reminder for those of us who have let caramelized onions slip off our mental food map. What's more, she created a time lapse video of the caramelization process that I've now watched four times, just for the pleasure of seeing those crispy raw onions melt down into a rich and mellow spread.

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Caramelized onions are one of those magic ingredients. They add amazing flavor to the most simple of meals, require very little energy to prepare and make other people think that you are an extraordinary cook. All it takes is a nice, big skillet (I use a 12 inch cast iron one), five or six large onions cut into thin rings and some time.

Pre-heat the skillet for a few minutes before adding a small amount of olive oil (around a tablespoon). When the oil coats the bottom of the pan and shimmers, add your mountain of sliced onion (at the beginning of cooking, that pan was filled to the brim with onions) and immediately turn the temperature down to low. The secret to making gorgeous caramelized onions is that you want to cook them on the lowest temp your stove can manage while still producing heat. Then, every 10 or 15 minutes, move them around the pan with some tongs. You want them to darken but not blacken. The goal is to cultivate and enhance the sugars in the onions without creating an acrid flavor. You know they are done when you take a taste and they are soft and sweet, with no crunch at all.

Caramelized onions are great for a vast number of dishes. They make an amazing appetizer on a toasted baguette with brie, they're fabulous on homemade pizza with fresh mozzarella, they can serve as the base for french onion soup and they elevate a regular sandwich from basic to amazing. And they keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks.