Do you have onions, or shallots, or garlic? Do you have olive oil? Maybe some salt?
How’d we know! If you’re stuck in your house today, watching trees get heavy with white fluff—or you’re home for a few hours at any time in your life—do this one thing while you go about your puttering around: caramelize onions, all the onions (or garlic or shallots) you’ve got. Here’s how:
Then freeze them: Either spread them into a thin layer in a plastic baggie, or spoon them into an ice cube tray if you have one you never want to use for anything else ever again (I’m that dedicated to on-demand caramelized onions; are you?). The frozen onion schmear will stay good and quick to thaw straight from the freezer for months.
The short-term benefit of this activity is your house will smell great. But on many a random weeknight in the future, you’ll feel like a kick-ass genius: Instead of wait waiting waiting waiting for onions to caramelize (or getting impatient and cranking up the heat and burning them to bits), you’ll have little quantities of the nutty, dish-boosting secret weapon ready to go.
When I remember to do this, I use the onion goo essentially wherever I would use oil or butter. It makes everything taste deeply flavorful and oniony-sweet—in a jiffy.
Here are some dishes that can now be ready in a fraction of the time:
Tell us: What are you freezer staples?
A New Way to Dinner, co-authored by Food52's founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, is an indispensable playbook for stress-free meal-planning (hint: cook foundational dishes on the weekend and mix and match ‘em through the week).
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Written by: Ali Slagle
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9 Comments
Someone posted here the garlic confit recipe within a recipe for one of my favorite dishes discovered in recent months - Gjelina's cauliflower (or broccoli or romesco) roasted and tossed with garlic confit and confit oil, red wine vinegar and parsley. https://food52.com/recipes/40540-gjelina-s-roasted-cauliflower-with-garlic-parsley-vinegar
The confits and the flavored oils have become must-have staples in my fridge and freezer - a wonderfully versatile condiment and a deeply flavored alternative to caramelized onions (which I also make regularly and keep in my freezer). ;o)
I took a hiatus from revelry because I kept finding patterns I "had" to make but couldn't find the time to sit down and knit them. Now that my yarn has been unearthed (it was packed away during out last move and it was a pain to get to) and my baby isn't really a baby any more :( I'm starting to feel the itch to knit again.
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