Mahogany colored caramelized onions are a wonderful sweet savory ingredient in French Onion Soup, and for topping for ribs, chops, steaks, burgers, hotdogs, baked potatoes, your lover... My favorite substrate is brisket or pizza dough.
As amazing as it seems, onions can be very sweet if cooked slowly. The process converts the natural sugars to caramel. Naturally, the sweeter the onion, the better the outcome. If they are in season, try to use Vidalias from Georga, Walla Wallas from Washington State, Texas Sweets, Mauis from Hawaii, Sweet Imperials from California, and OsoSweet from Chile. Most are available from April through June, except for the Osos, which are available in January through March, and Mauis which can be found deep into November. These breeds are usually 3-6% sweet and can even get up to 10% sweet. As a bonus, they are also lower in pyruvic acid, the stuff that gives onions bite and makes you cry when cutting them.
If you are using regular onions, you can sweeten them with a pinch of sugar or honey.
My editor, Allen Kelson, says "When onions are cheap, we freeze baggies of caramelized ones; they're great for moistening sandwiches and also for a gazillion other things."
Makes. About 1 cup or enough for topping a 12" pizza, for topping 6 sandwiches, or for topping 6 baked potatoes
Preparation time. 5 minutes or less
Cooking time. 30 minutes
Ingredients
2 cups of sliced onions
3 tablespoons butter
2 pinches of salt
Do this
1) Peel the onions and and slice them into 1/8 - 1/4" slices. Separate them thoroughly. Over a medium heat, melt the butter in a non-stick frying pan, stir in the onions, and add the salt. Let them cook until they are brown all over but not burned, stirring every 5 minutes or so. The idea is to slowly extract most of the moisture, burn off the acrid stuff that makes you cry, and turn the copious natural sugars to caramel.
2) Optional. Add a pinch or two of hot pepper flakes when you add the onions to the pan. Just because you can.
3) Optional. When the onions are mostly brown, add 1/2 teaspoon of inexpensive balsamic vinegar. This amps up the sweetness, and balances it with some tartness. Cook another 10 minutes until the vinegar is fully absorbed.
4) Optional. When the onions are ready, add 2 teaspoons of fresh rosemary, thyme, or oregano and cook for 5 minutes. If you use dried herbs, add them before the onions turn brown so the herbs can absorb some moisture and give up more of its flavor.
Caramelized Onion Pizza
Grilled pizza comes closer to brick oven pizza like you get in Rome or Naples than anything you can do indoors and it beats the snot out of the stuff that arrives steamed and soggy in the cardboard box. The trick is to get the dough and toppings cooked properly without incinerating the crust. The best way to do that is to use a pizza stone, a large ceramic surface that absorbs the heat and transfers it to the dough. If you don't have one, you can use a cookie pan, or large baking sheet. I'm a big fan of the ZaGrill Pizza Cooker (shown above), a clever device that holds the dough above the grates and above a metal heat absorbing and radiating plate.
If you are using a stone, you can get it very hot. If you are using a metal pan, medium heat is better. That means if you are using charcoal, use fewer coals than usual and bank the coals to the sides. For gas, use only one burner and turn the pan after a few minutes to keep one side from cooking to fast. Regardless of the method you use, always cook pizza with the cover down and, to amp up the flavor, toss a few wood chips or dried herbs on the fire before you put the pizza on.
You can cook pizza on a bare grill grate, but it's really hard to keep it from burning, and it will probably cook so fast you will have raw toppings. One way to avoid raw toppings is to precook the toppings, and caramelized onions are perfect for this.
Makes. 1 pizza, 12"
Preparation time. 5 minutes
Cooking time. 15 minutes
Ingredients
dough for 1 pizza, raw
1 cup caramelized onions
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary, thyme, or oregano
2 pinches coarse salt
Do this
1) Make a pizza crust from scratch or buy a frozen lump of raw, uncooked pizza dough. It's a lot better than the pre-cooked stuff. Thaw it. Lightly flour the surface of a table and and roll it out to about 14". It will shrink down to about 12". It doesn't have to be perfectly round. With a pastry brush or spray bottle, lightly coat the dough with olive oil.
2) Sprinkle the herbs on the dough first. This is important so the wet onion keep them from burning. Spread the caramelized onions on top of the herbs in a single thin layer.
Optional. Add 1/4 cup chopped sundried tomatoes, 1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives sliced in half, or 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper.
3) Bake until the crust begins to brown on the top and is golden brown on the bottom. Until you see how fast your grill and dough cook, pour a beer and stick close to the grill to an eye on things.
This page revised 10/30/2008
