today we're making caramelized onions
for a 10 inch skillet we'll start with a
pound and a half
of yellow onions let's cut the top of
the onion
off then it's root and cut it in half
pull to pull peel
all the halves and then slice them
pull to pole this will yield nice even
strips that will cook
evenly instead of semi-circles of
variable size
as the onion gets unstable tilt it
forward to finish slicing
to make this process as safe and
painless as possible you should use a
pinch grip on your knife and a claw grip
on the onion if you are not yet
comfortable with these techniques
here is a video that demonstrates them
if you want
caramelized rather than wilted onions
you need a stainless steel skillet
this will give you plenty of sticky
brown bits resulting in deliciously
jammy consistency set it over high heat
and add a quarter cup of olive oil
it will seem like a lot but the oil is
crucial to proper flavor and texture
the excess oil can easily be removed
after cooking
so there is no worry about greasy onions
when the oil starts to shimmer add the
onions
and 1 teaspoon of diamond crystal kosher
salt
if using table or some fine green salt
reduce that
to a half teaspoon mix to integrate the
salt
and then leave your onions alone until
they brown
on the bottom if you keep stirring they
won't brown
periodically chuck on the side to see if
you cut color
nope not yet here we go
we've been cooking them for about 3
minutes and they are finally ready to
stir
we'll continue cooking over moderately
high heat without disturbing them
until the bottom browns again as they
continue to cook
browning will happen faster and faster
so you need to watch them closely
here we go at about 5 minutes we've got
color again
always tuck your onions back inside the
pan after stirring
to prevent the onions from drying up on
the sides of the pan
let's check if the bottom of the pan has
sufficient lubrication
this looks a tad dry to me so i'll add
another tablespoon of oil
and stir them i think we have plenty of
color now and it's time to turn our heat
down to very low
on an electric stove you might want to
move to another burner it takes the
skillet a couple of minutes to drop in
temperature
so at first you might want to stir the
onions a good bit
but once the skillet cools off they'll
be fine for
five to eight minute periods without any
attention
once we are on low heat the onion juices
won't be evaporating that fast and
they'll start to pick up the brown bits
from the bottom of the pan
at this point i'll switch to stirring
with a flat wooden spoon
our onions are deeply brown and very
tender at this point
so we're ready to finish them off with a
bit of balsamic vinegar
the acidity will balance the sugar in
the onions
and will help pick up the remaining
brown bits from the bottom of the pan
cook them for a few minutes and then
taste for salt
i think it needs another pinch
good done now let's tilt our pan
and scoop all the onions to one side so
that the excess oil can leak out
this will only take a couple of minutes
let's scoop the onions out and they're
ready to use on
anything your heart desires to make
cleaning easy
pour out the oil wipe the lip of the pan
and boil some water in it for a few
minutes before washing
for more onion techniques don't forget
to subscribe to helen's kitchen channel
and if you're ever in the boston area
maybe i'll see you in one of my classes