Onion Recipes
 |
|
cipolline onions: a flat Italian variety |
Recipes A-Z from our farm Our CSA Photo Gallery Bulk Deliveries to many Bay Area locations |
Fresh Onion Storage: If your onions have green tails and look shiny and not 'cured', (no papery skin) keep them in the fridge and use them within a week or so.
Dried Onion Storage: If your onions are 'cured' (papery skin, no green tail) keep them in a cool dark place, in a paper bag, or in a bowl, but out of sunlight. If you keep dried onions in the fridge they will think it's a dark cold winter and they'll start to sprout sooner thinking their spring is just around the corner. :-)
Baked Spicy Onion Slices
from Chez Panisse Vegetables by Alice Waters
Onions cooked this way can be served warm or cold, as a side dish, or by themselves. Sweet, juicy yellow onions are best for this recipe. Peel them, slice them 1/4-inch thick, season well with salt, and place them on a well-oiled baking sheet. Brush the exposed sides of the onions with olive oil and bake them in a preheated 375 F oven for about 30 minutes, or until the onions are soft, and browned on their undersides. When the onions are cooked, place them carefully in a shallow dish, keeping the slices intact. Pour over them a vinaigrette made with 1 part sherry vinegar, 4 parts extra virgin olive oil, salt and a pinch of ground cayenne or hot pepper flakes. Let the onions marinate in the vinaigrette for about 20 minutes. Serve them cool, or warm them gently in the oven. Sweet red onions are also good baked this way. Peel, slice, season, and brush red onion slices with oil as above, then sprinkle some good balsamic vinegar over them. As they bake, the vinegar helps them caramelize. Either serve them warm right off the tray or dress them in a shallow dish with olive oil and a little more balsamic vinegar and marinate them a while first.
Baked Onions
from Recipes from a Kitchen Garden by Renee Shepherd
4 large whole onions, peeled
2 Tbs. softened butter
1 Tbs. fresh thyme or 1 tsp. dried
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 375 F. Slice off and discard the top ½ inch of the stem end of each onion. Spread the cut surfaces with butter and sprinkle with thyme, salt and pepper. Place each onion on a square of oil, large enough to completely enclose it. Wrap each onion up tightly and put in preheated oven. Bake about 1 hour. Let each diner unwrap his or her own baked onion. Serves 4.
Calcot Onion Info from Jonathan at Eat Right at Home
Andy first put calçot onions in the CSA boxes last season, and I hope they were a hit with people. I'm reprinting my contribution from last year for this week's box, in case you didn't get it last year. Calçot onions are a Catalan treat, and a festival celebrating their harvest takes place in a town called Valls, north of Tarragona in Catalan, each year.
In Valls, the calçots are roasted over hot coals on wire grills. In fact, they are not even washed before roasting. This cooking takes place an hour or two before eating, as the onions have to be wrapped in paper or plastic to "steam" after roasting. This loosens the skin and allows the interior to fully cook and become super sweet. To eat them, hold the calçot in your left hand by its blackened root base and in your right hand by its inner green leaves at the top. Slip off the blackened part, discard it, and dip the white part in the special sauce I am providing next, called salvitjada. Bite off the calçot where the green part starts and chow it down. Wear clothes that can get messy! Nowadays La Calçotada include lots of wine, lamb chops, roasted chicken, sausage with white beans, allioli, endive salad and dessert, but they are great all by themselves.
The following two methods come from "Catalan Cuisine" by Coleman Andrews. The sauces make enough for about a dozen calçots (which wouldn't even be a single serving in Valls!), so adjust the quantities according to how many you get in your box.
2 Calçot Sauces
1 tomato, whole, unpeeled
12-20 calçots
30 almonds, blanched and roasted
3 garlic cloves, roasted and squeezed out of their skins
1/4 t dried spicy red chili, minced
pinch cayenne
1/2 t red wine vinegar
olive oil
1/2 t salt
Roast the tomato around 10 minutes until blackened on all sides on a grill or over hot coals. Set aside and cool. Grill the calçots until very well blackened on all sides. Remove them from the grill and wrap them in paper (newspaper is fine), then wrap them again in a plastic bag. Set aside to steam for 1-2 hours.
Slip the skin off the tomato, cut it in half, and remove the seeds. Chop finely. Crush the almonds in a mortar, then add the garlic, chili, cayenne, salt, and mix together until a thick paste forms. Transfer to a bowl and cover barely with olive oil. Allow to rest a couple minutes, then add the tomato and vinegar. Mix well. Add more oil, salt, and chili if necessary. This should be slightly thick, but still liquidy.
Another Salvitjada:
10 hazelnuts, roasted
10 almonds, blanched and roasted
1 tomato, seeded and finely chopped
1 head garlic, roasted and the pulp squeezed out of the skins
1 parsley sprig, minced
pinch cayenne
1/2 t salt
1 t red wine vinegar
3 T olive oil
Pulverize the hazelnuts and almonds with a mortar, then transfer to a large bowl. Add the tomato, garlic, and parsley and mash until smooth. Stir in the cayenne, salt, vinegar, and oil. Mix well and allow to stand for at least 2 hours.
4 Tablespoons olive oil
3 pounds onions, sliced about 1/4 inch thick (3-4 bunches walla wallas)
2 teaspoons fresh, chopped oregano
S & P
1 cup white wine
In a big frying pan, heat oil on medium heat. Add onions and oregano, stir up some, then cover. Cook about 5 minutes, then turn heat to low and add about a teaspoon of salt. Cook covered about 20-25 minutes, then add wine, toss and cover. About every 20 or so minutes stir up a bit. After about an hour, or when you hear the hiss and sizzle, start stirring more frequently. When they've browned up quite a bit add the dash of vinegar/lemon juice and season to taste with pepper and more salt if you like.
* This recipe sounds like a lot of work but it's not, especially if you're in the kitchen already doing other things. This ‘onion jam' is heavenly as a cheese-replacement for quesadillas, especially with the mushroom and zucchini addition.
|
Dal: Classic Lentils as prepared by Momina Hayat Banday, written from Julia's memory
Momina was my good friend I met while we were both living at the Beijing Metallurgy Institute in ‘87-‘88. All the ‘foreigners' lived together, it was in that building that I learned about cooking in Senegal, Japan and Pakistan. The following summer Momina came to visit me in California and we continued to cook together. (See photo, above.)
Here's her recipe for dal, the thick lentil soup that is common in at least Pakistan, and I've read it's also common in many parts of India, but maybe not always with so many onions! Momina always liked to have this simple version available to eat with whatever else we were eating, but this dish can also be fancied up with sliced greens, cilantro, grated carrots, etc.
2 cups masoor dal (red lentils), or brown lentils
2 bunches bianco di maggio onions, tails removed, cleaned, and
sliced in thin crescents
1 teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
pinch cayenne
S & P
cooking oil
Rinse the lentils, then cover in a large saucepan with 8 cups of water and bring to a boil. Simmer on low for about an hour until soft, partially covered. Heat the oil over a medium flame, then add the onion pieces with the tumeric and cumin and S & P. (Madhur Jaffrey recommends putting the tumeric in with the boiling dal, and adding the salt to the boiled dal once cooked through, I don't remember the exact order with Momina's recipe.) Cook the onions, stirring often, until onion is well browned but not burned. Add the cayenne, if using. Add the onions to the dal once it's cooked through. Stir and eat with yogurt and or other dishes.
Jiao Zi
 |
These are the famous dumplings of northern China. They are often fried up in Chinese restaurants here, and called ‘pot stickers'. But in the homes of many people in Beijing and I imagine other cities and towns as well, it is traditional to get together and make these dumplings which are then boiled and eaten with chopped raw garlic marinated in dark Chinese vinegar. There are many many recipes and ideas on how to make jiao zi, the folks that I cooked with and learned from in China always told me how everyone makes jiao zi with what ever is in season, hence the recipe below.
The simple instructions to this recipe are:
1. Make the meat filling that looks a little like raw meatloaf mixture.
2.Gather willing hands to help fill the jiaozi skins, which can be made with flour and water at home or purchased at most grocery stores near where the tofu, won ton skins and bean sprouts are sold.
3. Fill the skins and seal with a dab of water.
4. Boil like you would raw tortellini. I've always just tested, I don't have hard numbers on how long to boil. You could look in a Chinese cookbook or google it. (I've now heard at least two other people use that as a verb, and I am my own editor so I'm using it here.)
5. Eat with a sauce made up of dark Chinese vinegar or balsamic, with chopped garlic sitting in the little vinegar bowl. You can add small amounts of soy sauce and sesame oil if desired.
Meat filling ingredients, please change at will to what you have on hand:
Ground beef and pork, 1 pound each
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon white pepper
2 teaspoons Japanese Mirin or brandy
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
3 medium onions, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
3 carrots, shredded fine small amount of shredded chard or cabbage,
blanched first then chopped
About CSA |
Produce |
Frequently Asked Questions
Harvest Schedule | News |
Join | Contact
