anyone here familiar with making caramelized onions?

[azurnoir]

a few questions

what is the best medium to cook them in?

how long does it take to make them?

and can they be made in really big batches and frozen for later use?

I'd be quite grateful for any help with this?

[elleng]

1. Saute pan.

Not MY recipe, haven't done it in quite a while, but sounds reasonable:

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_caramelize_onions/

[azurnoir]

3. Thanks I'm planning on making something called Mujadara

(Lebanese style lentils and rice) and it calls for a large amount of caramelized onions and I'm reading conflicting stuff about what to use to fry them in and how long it takes, most recipes using them say 20 minutes but when you Google how to make them it's more like an hour

[RILib]

17. mujadarra - one of my fav things

Don't forget to top it with yogurt. That makes a big difference.

[azurnoir]

18. I made it Thursday and it went pretty well

I also made chicken gyros and both were topped with homemade tzatziki sauce, which iI used plain Greek yogurt as a base for yum if I say so myself

[freshwest]

10. That's the way I do mushrooms for freezing. Cook a flat of sliced fresh ones in oil.

I drain off most of the 'gravy' from the mushrooms and keep it in separate containers to add to anything I want that flavor for. I add a little bit of extra oil to cover the mushrooms in small freezer containers. Good for a quick mushroom omelette, and don't have to worry about fresh mushrooms going bad.

It's much cheaper to buy a flat at a place like Cash'n'Carry, the price of the packages in the grocery store for that amount is about 10Xs as much. Just an idea, I think this onion recipe might work the same way.

[NJCher]

2. a tip

Use baking soda. It gives them a nice golden color. Just a little, like a tsp or two.

I slice mine on my mandolin and take plenty of time to cook them.

Nothing like them. Wonderful for sandwiches, toppings on burgers, be they meat or veggie burgers.


Cher

[azurnoir]

4. Thanks I've never made them before and plan to do it a couple of days

for a rice and lentil dish

[siligut]

5. I learned to make caramelized onions from from Ina Garten

Slice the onions thin, and use a couple tbs oil in a heavy sauce pan. Place on medium low heat, you don't want to burn them and stir every 15 mins or so. Takes about 1.5 hrs.

I have never tried freezing them. Good luck

[The empressof all]

6. I do large quantities in the crock pot

Basically you slice the onions thin, add a stick of butter, set the crock pot on low and let it go for 12 to 15 hours.

Here's the epicurious link.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Caramelized-Onions-100845

I usually don't measure the onions, I just fill the crock pot and add the stick of butter. I do cut the butter into 8 to 10 pieces and I do stir them after six hours or so...

I have substituted Olive Oil for the butter and I add a bit of salt as well.

[livetohike]

8. That's a great idea! Thanks for posting this

I am going to try this .

[azurnoir]

12. Thank you that sounds great

I'll have to blow the dust off mine and give that one a try

[nadine_mn]

7. long and slow

To get the best results caramelized onions take a long time to get nice and sweet. When recipes say 20 min, they lie - lol. There was a whole article on slate.com awhile back about how recipes lie about the time.


http://www.slate.com/articles/life/scocca/2012/05/how_to_cook_onions_why_recipe_writers_lie_and_lie_about_how_long_they_take_to_caramelize_.html

[Warpy]

9. I make them in a big chicken fryer

because there is a lot of volume initially that cooks down.

You can make them in big batches and freeze them, although the texture will suffer slightly. http://www.thekitchn.com/quick-tip-freeze-caramelized-o-81485

Onion confit http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/onion-confit is something I discovered some time ago to liven up boring fried tofu and bean burgers. You make it with veggie broth instead of beef broth and it's just as good. I also added the balsamic but found any other vinegar was too sour and interfered with the sweetness of the onions.

[Stinky The Clown]

11. A big enameled cast iron pot, a stick of butter, as many sliced onions as you can cram into the pot

Set it in a 350 oven and plan to let it go for hours and hours. Stir it every hour or so. The volume will reduce significantly, Probably to well under half. Let them go until they're brown enough for you. I like them very dark brown.

Be careful about using sweet onions. They caramelize almost sugary and actually are not very good in other dishes.

[azurnoir]

13. That sounds like a really good way too

especially when its kind of chilly out thanks

[grasswire]

14. oddly enough, my local newspaper had a feature on your particular Lebanese dish today!

The method for making the onions was different- done in several stages with the last stage turning up the heat to make the bottom of the onion mess crusty.

I'll find a link to the recipe and post it here.


Here it is:

http://www.oregonlive.com/foodday/index.ssf/2013/06/caramelized_onions_key_to_midd.html

[dem in texas]

15. Don't use sweet onions

I make mine with half oil and half butter, saute in my favorite skillet on medium low, usually takes 15 or 20 minutes. I made them once with a batch of sweet onions because that is all I had and I didn't like the sweetness in the onions once they caramelized. I like to use medium size yellow onions for cooking. Getting harder to find, the supermarkets always have the giant size onions. Even Cox Farm market doesn't sell bags of cooking onions. But not to worry, Fiesta sells the mesh bags of white or yellow onions, the perfect size for cooking. And I can buy a Salvadoran Semita coffee cake at Fiesta.

[Athena66]

16. Exactly, dem

Use the regular old yellow onions. Fortunately, I am still able to get them here all over the place.
But I get the best caramelized onions, as several posters above suggested, you really need to ooh them a long, long time. Mine usually go for around an hour and a half or so, at very low heat. Stir often.