Thursday, November 13, 2008

Barefoot Bloggers: Roasted Onions


No time for a long post today ("there is a God!!" you say) -- the hubs and I are trying to get out of town for the weekend for our 10th anniversary, and I have to pack, go clothes shopping, buy presents for the weekend birthday parties, locate and remove all of the choking hazards to make things easier for the grandparents (without whom this trip would not be possible), install a plexiglass barrier over our railings because my 14 month old is trying to squeeze through the balusters, go grocery shopping (again), cook a big pot of chili so there is something in the fridge to eat while we are gone, and possibly redo my liquefied rice pudding. And clean. And hand sanitize in a borderline-obsessive way, because two of my three children have had the stomach bug over the past week, and I will cry a river of pitiful salty tears if the cooties strike me this weekend. I'll take the stomach bug, a cold and pink eye all at the same time if they will just hold off until Monday.

But first, roasted onions! This is a fun, unusual choice; of course, I'd expect nothing less from Kelly over at Baking with the Boys. Kelly's blog is your one-stop source for cooking fun -- where else can you go to find dimply plumosaurus cake, gigantimuffins and punk rock pie?

I didn't really understand the first instruction about how to cut the onion:

Remove the stem end of each onion and carefully slice off the brown part of the root end, leaving the root intact. Peel the onion. Stand each onion root end up on a cutting board and cut the onion in wedges through the root. Place the wedges in a bowl.

I only understood the "place the wedges in a bowl" part of that. Even studying the picture in my copy of "Barefoot Contessa at Home" did not help me one bit. But I decided not to sweat it; I figured as long as I didn't go and do something crazy like mince the onions, they'd taste fine in the end.

My interpretation of removing the stem end/preserving the root end/standing onion on the former stem end/cutting through the formerly preserved root end:




Successful placement of wedges in bowl:




The dressing was fabulous. Coming right on the heels of not having butternut squash on Saturday, Publix did not have fresh thyme yesterday -- oh Publix, how you infuriate me sometimes! -- and there was just no thyme for a scavenger hunt, so I went with dried. But we thought the dressing was great; I think this would be wonderful on salad, too:




I love that there was no marinating time involved. I really needed that after the kugelhopf. Just toss the onions with the dressing and then put them on the pan as fast as your little heart desires:



They smelled wonderful while they were roasting! And looked great coming out of the oven:



We really enjoyed these! We had them with a rotisserie chicken from Publix (I pushed the Easy button there) and some mashed potatoes. While we liked these onions as a stand alone side dish, I would be more likely next time to toss them in pasta dishes or use them in paninis and on pizzas, etc. I will definitely make this again. Thanks, Kelly!

ROASTED ONIONS, FROM BAREFOOT CONTESSA AT HOME
2 red onions
1 yellow onion
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup good olive oil
1/2 tablespoon minced fresh parsley leaves
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Remove the stem end of each onion and carefully slice off the brown part of the root end, leaving the root intact. Peel the onion. Stand each onion root end up on a cutting board and cut the onion in wedges through the root. Place the wedges in a bowl.

For the dressing, combine the lemon juice, mustard, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. Pour the dressing over the onions and toss well.

With a slotted spoon, transfer the onions to a sheet pan, reserving the vinaigrette that remains in the bowl. Bake the onions for 30 to 45 minutes, until tender and browned. Toss the onions once during cooking. Remove from the oven, and drizzle with the reserved dressing. Sprinkle with parsley, season to taste and serve warm or at room temperature.

29 comments:

Mary Ann said...

I am a slacker again! I don't know what is wrong with me. I am planning on making these first thing in the morning and then posting about it. I was wondering if everyone just ate them alone, or with something else. I was thinking they would probably be good mixed in with other stuff.
Talk about a busy weekend!
I love your list. I also love anniversary trips. My husband and I take turn planning every year and the rule is we have to go away at least overnight. Can't wait to hear about it and I love reading your posts, long or short. You are hilarious and your life sounds alot like mine.
Good luck with the hand sanitizing!
p.s. I was wondering exactly how to go about removing the stems of the onions too.

Suzie said...

My chopping was a bit haphazard - sometimes through the root, sometimes not. Didn't matter - the onions all tasted great. I loved it as a side, and I hink your idea of pasta is a really good one too.

Audrey said...

These do sound good! I wasn't sure I would want to eat onions on their own as a vegetable though I love them in other things...putting these on a pizza (or on a burger in the summer) actually sounds like heaven.
ps please don't do anything to your rice pudding? I wanted someone else join me in starting a new liquid rice pudding fad. Let's both put fancy straws on our shopping lists, OK? Maybe the bendy ones?
Happy anniversary!

Laura said...

Congratulations on 10 years! A weekend getaway with just the Husband - ohhhhh, am I jealous. It'll be 15 for us next year and I'm reallllly hoping for something big and somewhere very tropically (so much so, that I may just plan the darn thing myself so I can't be disappointed!). Hope you have a wonderful time and avoid all those cooties (stomach, eye, or otherwise!)

Your onions look wonderful! Boy did they ever smell good here at our house (even if it was at 8pm last night).

Anonymous said...

Yum! Look perfect! Have a fabulous weekend.

Jersey Girl Cooks said...

Have a great anniversary trip! Your onions look great. I didn't do the cutting thing right so mine fell apart a little.

Laura said...

Cathy - I just nearly spit out my coffee. John Taylor was my Duran Duran guy! You must remember to be more careful in the morning with your humor! I'll be happy to share Edward from the book (but not my "Edward" at home:-). Don't say you weren't warned about those books though. I read thru the 4 book series in a week. Yeah, they're easy to read, but I just couldn't put them down and I was up til 1 am every night - not good when the littlest one is up by 6 am. Remember your experience with Facebook? Same kind of obsession. Have a great weekend!

Maria said...

I love onions! Have a fun weekend!! Happy Anniversary!

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniver-s-a-r-y baby - remember that song? Hope you have a wonderful trip! Your onions look great. I liked mine with the boston butt, even though Yankee hubster did not. And no, I did not bring my onions to work to share. "Would you care to try my pot of onions" is not a phrase that generally comes out of my mouth at work! HA

Melissa said...

Oooh, this looks good. Hope you don't catch the cooties!! And have a great trip!

Anne said...

I'm glad you liked them! I wondered the same thing about cutting them but they turned out great anyways.

I hope you avoid the germs and get to have a wonderful anniversary weekend!

NKP said...

Have fun on your trip, hope your health stays intact.
So happy you were pleased with the onions, Ina is wonderful!

Megan said...

Don't catch the cooties! Spray the air with Lysol and run!!

I agree, the onions were great!

Aggie said...

Your onions look great! What a great idea to serve them with a Publix rotisserie...yum...I'll have to do that next time!

Thanks for stopping by my blog! :)

Anonymous said...

I agree about the onions. I will probably use them for other dishes moving forward, especially since my spouse didn't like them alone. Our tenth anniversary was this summer and - due to a last minute change in plans - we went away...with our kids. don't make that mistake.

Have a great anniversary and I always love your posts, long or short.

chocolatechic said...

OH...they look great.

Megan said...

Good job on the onions. I guess I better get my post up! have a great weekend. :)

Deb in Hawaii said...

I miss the long post but I am glad you get to go have some fun! Stay healthy! Your onions look great. You are right, they would be great on pizza or a sandwich.

Summer said...

I wasn't quite sure myself which end was the root, I just started cutting. Yours look great. Have a fabulous anniversary weekend.

Anonymous said...

I had a hard time understanding how to cut the wedges as well. The dressing really was really fabulous, however!

Todd M said...

They look terrific. Our store was out of regular thyme as well but they had lemon thyme - that might explain why I thought everything tasted too lemony ;)

Anonymous said...

I also had to read those cutting directions twice.

Hope you have fun on your trip though!

Anonymous said...

I can finally comment! Firefox was blocking the little password thingie. These look great! I'm actually going to make Miss Pickles into a book...maybe I'll include a pair of pink aviators with it!

Flourchild said...

Hey check back on the comments on TWD about the arborio rice pudding. I reboiled mine and it worked..maybe you want to try that before starting over!

Karen said...

Thanks for visiting my blog! I loved the dressing for the roasted onions too... I wanted to drink what was left! LOL

Nancy/n.o.e said...

When I saw that this dish was a BB pick I put it on The List. It's great to have your personal endorsement. Grocery stores are supposed to have everything we need; no fair running out of thyme (or sage, in my case last week). Multiple grocery runs just are not in my game plan. I'm glad the dressing was wonderful anyway. Hope you got everything done, stay well, and enjoy your all-too-short weekend. I wouldn't give that rice pudding another thought.
Nancy

Anonymous said...

Happy anniversary! I hope your trip was relaxing given all of the things you had to do prior to it!

My store was out of fresh thyme, too. I substituted dried and also used some fresh rosemary. It smelled amazing while baking and tasted even better. My kind of recipe!

Pamela said...

I hope you had a wonderful weekend away! And Happy Anniversary!! These onions look so wonderful. I've never craved onions before all of these BB posts. :o)

The Blonde Duck said...

I'm so thrilled you like the story! :)

 
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