I opened my onion rack lately to find onions that had sprouted several-inch-long green roots... It made me extremely queasy and I threw them out. But I was wondering - would it be safe to eat them / cook with them?
Sure, but the rest of the onion gets mushy and unpalatable after they've grown for a bit. Some people eat the sprouts; they have a lot of protein, so they're popular with vegans and other protein challenged groups.
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Twice now, I have burned my onions while heating them in a pan. I was just trying to caramelize them, and I'll be a monkey's uncle if they didn't burn every time. They were on medium heat, and I put olive oil at the bottom of the pan (which may or may not have been a mistake), and they just burned, sticking to the bottom with a fervor I've never seen before (except the other time I tried to heat up onions).
Onions have a lot of sugar in them. All they want in the world is to burn and fill your kitchen with oniony smoke.
The solution, as with all things heavy in sugar, is to turn down the heat and stir frequently.
That said- if your olive oil was extra virgin then it might have been your oil that started burning before the onions did.
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Can garlic or onion stored in the fridge help to sanitize? How to protect fridge from dangerous elements which can spoil stored food?
I have often heard claims that garlic has antibacterial properties when consumed. I haven't read any reliable sources which prove or disprove that, so it could be false. Even if it inhibits the growth of certain bacteria, the botulism cases caused by improperly stored garlic alone are an indication that garlic, unlike substances like pure ethanol, doesn't kill all bacteria. But even assuming that garlic has some antibacterial properties, it doesn't do anything for your fridge. Oh, and I have never heard these claims for onions - just because two plants are botanically related, it doesn't mean they have the same effect on living organisms.
Garlic isn't something magic which kills germs through its mere presence. You would have to get it in contact with them. As germs live on food, if garlic is indeed, as per our assumption, antibacterial, you would have smear garlic juice on each food item before packaging it, which is clear nonsense.
Luckily, you don't have to do that. There is no need to sterilize your fridge at all. It doesn't preserve food by killing bacteria; it preserves food by lowering the temperature to a point at which bacteria don't multiply, or do so very, very slowly. You don't have to rid of the bacteria present in food before you put it into the fridge, it will keep anyway for a reasonable length of time.
The only thing you want to do is to keep your fridge clean of spilled food. Bacteria multiply in food media. If you put a droplet containing bacteria on a clean, cold metal surface (like a fridge wall), they will fall "asleep" due to the temperature and eventually die of starvation. If you put them in that puddle of spilled pancake batter you didn't clean because you were in a hurry, they will start multiplying very slowly. After a few days to a few weeks, you will have a big bacterial colony in your batter puddle. And while the bacteria won't magically jump to any food items held in the same fridge as the puddle (airborne pathogens are pathogens people cough on each other, they can't fly by themselves), any physical contact of a food item with the puddle will result in contamination.
Bottom line: Keep the fridge clean on the inside with a sponge and some detergent, and you are safe from fridge-caused bacterial contamination. Your food can still spoil if held for too long time in the fridge, but there is no way you can prevent that except for methods which change the food a lot (e.g. canning, salting, or drying). Garlic will not help you in any way.
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I am cooking for a large group and am trying to do as much as I can in advance. One thing I would love to do in advance is chop several onions. I have done this before with a single onion; I stored the chopped onion in a plastic storage container (sealed with the lid) in the fridge. About 6 hours later, the smell of onions was very strong both in the fridge and on everything that was in the fridge. I can't imagine it with 4-6 onions!
What can I do to avoid the smell, not ruin everything in my fridge, but still be able to do the preparation 6-8 hours in advance?
I regularly store chopped onion in my refrigerator (or at least halves & quarters).
I either use tight-sealing plastic containers or zip-top bags. You may want to double-bag in zip-tops to be sure to avoid a smell.
One problem you may be having is onion-ness getting on the outside of the container. Be sure the outside is all clean and dry - no point in having a nicely sealed packet of onion when the outside can get all stinky anyway.
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A blooming onion is a deep fried onion which opens up during frying to resemble a flower.
Obviously, I start with a giant onion. How do I cut it?
This is best described with images.
Alternatively, if you're willing to drop a few hundred dollars, you can buy a bloomin' onion cutter. This is what restaurants use. There are cheaper alternatives, but I can't vouch for their quality or ease of use.
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I've searched around for information on this, and seen "caramelized onions" in some places (simple enough to make), and then what can only be described as a VIOLENT reaction indicating that rather than caramelized onions, "crispy onions" are the proper accoutrement to Mujaddara.
What is the difference, and what do I need to know in order to make crispy onions for Mujaddara?
Both crispy and caramelized onions are cooked for a long time, and will be very brown. However, they are cooked slightly differently.
Caramelized onions are usually cross-cut on the onion to release its moisture, and then cooked over very low heat in a crowded pan, stirring infrequently, so that they gradually release their sugars and liquid and it turns to caramel. Depending on the onions and desired result, you may even cover them, an add a little liquid and/or sugar. The end result is very soft and very sweet.
Arabic-style crispy onions are cut pole-to-pole in order to avoid rupturing cells in the onions. They are then fried over medium heat in an uncrowded pan, stirring regularly. This lets them dry out and become brown and crispy, even burning on thin ends. These onions should be a mix of crispy and chewy, and more savory than sweet.
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In several recipes I have seen lately, the instructions are to sautee onions and garlic without oil for a few minutes, and then add oil and continue until golden. If it's of any help, these are Ethiopian traditional recipes.
I know that the two processes are different, due to heat transfer by the oil, and the Maillard reaction etc. What could be the reason to start without oil and then add it though?
According to Wikipedia,
the preparation of a wat begins with chopped onions slow cooked, without any fat or oil, in a dry skillet or pot until much of their moisture has been driven away. Fat (usually niter kibbeh) is then added, often in quantities that might seem excessive by modern Western standards, and the onions and other aromatics are sautéed before the addition of other ingredients. This method causes the onions to break down and thicken the stew.
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How can I tone down the intensity of raw onion?
Some onions have a more acute taste and smell than others of the same type, and I would like to avoid them in salad dish, or making dips with raw onion. If effectively none, an alternative solution that can also be helpful is to find out what condiments can I add/mix with raw onion to cancel out the intensity of the the acute taste.
[EDIT]
There is a uniquely (IMHO) sweet taste to onion that I like. But accompany with that is the acute scene and flavor to it that I wanted to get ride of. I do not want to waste away the taste of onion, but remove the acuteness and remain the sweetness.
Two things control the "sharpness" of onions: variety and age. While certain varieties of onions are sharper than others (i.e. Reds, walla-walls and vidalias are sweeter), any onion which has been in storage too long is going to be sulphurous and sharp-tasting. Since it's January now, that's going to be pretty much all onions.
Since onion sharpness comes from sulphur compounds (as I understand it), the best way to sweeten onions is to release some of them ahead of using the onion. The best way to do that is:
Slice the onion thinly, crossways (parallel to its equator rather than pole-to-pole).
Place the sliced onion in a wide bowl, uncovered or very loosely covered, in the fridge or other cold place for at least an hour and up to a day.
Additionally, either vinegar or salt -- or both -- will help accelerate removing sharpness from onion. For example, for a New Year's Eve appetizer this year I sliced a red onion in to rings, tossed it with 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tsp red wine vinegar, and left it in an open bowl on the 45F porch for 5 hours. The result was intensely sweet red onion which could then be used as a canape topping.
If you're in a hurry, though, the only way to make the onion less sharp is to cook it.
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Can you cook hot dishes with pickled onions? I've never seen a recipe which uses them hot, is this just because they don't taste good hot? What hot dishes might be appropriate to put pickled onions in?
I've been reviewing old family recipes, and I've seen pickled onions called for in some soup, stew, and casserole recipes as an accent; this may or may not be because my foremothers grew and canned loads of onions. It's worth an experiment or two, I think!
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Almost every soup recipe seems to call for sauteed onions. For instance, I'm looking up recipes for squash soup, and every single one calls for onions -- but every soup recipe I can think of uses onions, so it's not just this type.
So what's the purpose of adding onion?
Sauteed onions can provide both caramel flavors (from the sugars in the onions) and Maillard reaction compounds, depending on how they are sauteed. Thus onions can supply a range of "umami" flavors for soup which otherwise you need to get through roasting animal bones and other tissue (e.g. brown veal stock). Of course, even beef stocks often add onion as well for extra flavor.
As an extreme example of this, I often prepare a vegetarian French Onion soup using a meat-free broth made entirely from onions, onion skins, and cheese rind. Blind tasters often fail to distinguish it from a store-bought beef stock.
You can get a lot of the same flavors from combinations of other browned vegetables, but onions neatly supply a perfect package of flavor compounds in one inexpensive, long-keeping root vegetable. Why use anything else?
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They always get wilted in the crisper pretty quickly. Is there a better way to store them?
Stilltasty recommends that you wrap the scallions (or green onions) in plastic wrap, and that site also says they'll last 7-10 days that way.
I actually wrap them in a damp paper towel and then in plastic wrap. I keep this little packet in the crisper drawer. I've kept them about 2 weeks this way.
Either way, each time you open the packet you should check for damaged parts and discard them.
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Is there any advantage to adding salt to onion while frying itself rather than adding it the last. My friends say it removes moisture from onion.
Is it true ? Why is removing moisture from onion important ?
It is true, in my experience. However, if your recipe does not require salt, you should not be adding it, of course. Removing moisture from onion with the aid of salt helps it reach its desired state (brown or translucent, as desired) faster.
I am most familiar with the use of onion in Indian cooking. I generally add a pinch or two of salt to onion when I start sauteing it. Onion starts sweating as soon as you add salt and start stirring.
The reason that salt draws out moisture from onion is osmotic pressure. The surface of the onion acts as a semipermeable membrane barrier. Since the solution outside the onion is more concentrated with respect to salt, water moves out of the onion to the general liquid side, to balance the osmotic pressure on either side of the onion surface.
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I've been using an online Paella recipe that instructs you to sweat some onions for 5 minutes, then add garlic for a few minutes, followed by the vegetables, tomatoes, rice and stock.
Is there a reason the onions need to be added and fried first (and before the garlic)? Does it affect the taste at all?
Recipe was Saffron Seafood Paella
It's not so much the taste as the texture. If they haven't been sauted first, the onions stay relatively crunchy during the rest of the cooking. The same is true of the garlic, but you'd usually have cut the garlic into much smaller pieces so it doesn't take as long to soften up, hence kicking the onion off first and adding the garlic a bit later.
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I was cooking this sausage and peppers recipe. I warmed up some EVO, browned the sausage on both sides, about 3 minutes on each side. They left some brown bits behind. I drained the pan of EVO and fat. There was still a slick of oil and brown bits. I then cooked the onions and peppers on the same heat (6 / medium). The brown bits seemed to dry up and eventually collected and burned.
What did I do wrong and what could I have done to prevent them brown bits from burning?
Also, how much oil are you supposed to put in the pan to brown the meat? Just enough to coat the entire bottom of the pan? More or less?
Stirring and scraping would prevent burned bits. The onions and peppers release water as they cook the mechanical action of stirring and scraping pulls up the brown bits before they burn and incorporates them into the peppers and onions.
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How can I suppress bad breath after eating garlic or onion?
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I've been using an online Paella recipe that instructs you to sweat some onions for 5 minutes, then add garlic for a few minutes, followed by the vegetables, tomatoes, rice and stock.
Is there a reason the onions need to be added and fried first (and before the garlic)? Does it affect the taste at all?
Recipe was Saffron Seafood Paella
It's not so much the taste as the texture. If they haven't been sauted first, the onions stay relatively crunchy during the rest of the cooking. The same is true of the garlic, but you'd usually have cut the garlic into much smaller pieces so it doesn't take as long to soften up, hence kicking the onion off first and adding the garlic a bit later.
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I am willing to forgo a little taste if I don't have to take 3 breaks while dicing an onion. Should I use red, white or yellow to minimize eye irritation. I have a small fridge/freezer so freezing them isn't an option.
The onions that cause the least tears are those with lower sulfur content. But it turns out that it's not just the variety of the onion that's a factor, but the sulfur content of the soil they're grown in (eg, areas of Georgia, where Vidalia onions are grown). Of course, this means they don't have the same 'bite' as you'd get from other onions.
In the U.S., at least, they're typically sold as 'Sweet' onions. They may go under names such as Vidalia, Maiu Sweet, Mayan Sweet, Walla Walla, etc. They tend to be yellow varieties, but they're fairly obvious in their shape-- they're not round, they tend to wider than the length from the ends. They also tend to be more wet than regular onions, so they don't store as well, and thus have a shorter season (or they're flown in from South America, for those of us in the U.S.)
If I were to rank them, from least to most tear-causing, I'd say:
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By size or weight - I never seem to know ...
Here's some general guidelines I have used in the past:
Small onion = 4 ounces by weight or about ½ cup chopped
Medium onion = 8 ounces, or about 1 cup chopped
Large onion = 12 ounces, or about 1½ cups chopped
Jumbo onion = 16 ounces, or about 2 cups chopped
The terms are not always completely accurate so use your best judgement. I've often seen large onions that were as big or bigger than "jumbo" according to this data.
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Onions are an excellent addition to many dishes, but cutting them can be frustrating when they make you "cry" all the time.
Does anyone know any tips or tricks to help minimise the tears when chopping onions?
The tearing of the eyes is a result of enzymes that form a sulpherous gas when the onion is cut (concentrated inside the inner core or bulb of the onion) being released into the surrounding air.
You have a few options to avoid this - one would be to not cut through the center of the onion but to extract the "core". This is kind of a pain and means you are discarding a decent chunk of onion, so I don't like it too much.
Another option is to use a fan to blow the gases away from you. A small fan next to you blowing horizontally should do the trick.
You could also wear goggles, although you'd have to leave them on for a while until the gas dissipates from the area.
Another technique is to cut a lemon in half and rub the fresh lemon against both sides of the blade. You'll have to keep "refreshing" the juice coat and your onions will have some lemon juice on them, so this is somewhat limited by that factor.
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