The little black dress – perfect for any occasion, easily dressed up or down and never goes out of style. That's how I am beginning to look at caramelized onions.
In my recipe for "French Country Steaks" I used them to take the place of a can of French onion soup. The dish took longer to bring together, but the result was a richer flavor.
Bob suggested we caramelize an onion to add flavor to a pot roast we made while camping this past weekend. When combined with some beef broth, red wine, garlic and other seasonings, the gravy it produced was spectacular.
There isn't any big, complicated secret to caramelizing an onion. Over about medium heat, I start with equal parts butter and olive oil, about 2T each. Then I thinly slice the onions and throw them in the pan with some salt and pepper. Stir them around to coat all the bits with the oil/butter mixture. The onion will start to wilt, turning translucent. Stir them every now and then and keep going. If the skillet gets dry, or if the onions start to stick, just put a little more oil in, or even water or beef broth. Not a lot, just enough to keep the onions moving. When they start to turn brown, don't panic. This is what you want. Just keep waiting and stirring until the onions are a nice deep, dark brown – that's the caramel color you're looking for. This takes me about 15-18 minutes from start to finish.
I found a pretty good how-to article with pictures at All Recipes. The photo above is from Hormel Foods website, and they have step-by-step instructions, too.
If you haven't tried the little black dress of food, I highly recommend it. It's worth the time you will invest, because your dish will have a deep, rich but sweet flavor.
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