Cooking For Engineers

[Jim Cooley]

I made a batch of Chicken Vindaloo a couple nights ago which required browning 3 large onions to dark browness -- like for French Onion Soup, only darker.

I did it in a large saute pan with some oil, but it took forever and the line between dark brown and burnt is about 1 minute.

Anyone ever tried browning a large batch in the oven in a roasting pan, with minimal oil?

I'm thinking 300° -- or should I crank it up to 400° or so?

What's happening is that the sugars in the onions get carmelized, but not burnt. I want to reduce the amount of oil, too.

Thought I'd throw this out there for any suggestions you might have to offer.

[Dilbert]

.......... it took forever
ah-yup. roger that; confirmed in spades.

....browning in the oven
nope. not tried that, but sounds like a reasonable thing.
I'd go with your 300'F guess - certainly not more than 350'

what happens is - from my observations... - onions have a fair amount of water. you heat, cook, boil, toil and trouble but then suddenly all the water is gone and they go from "translucent" to "burnt" in nearly a flash.

low and slow may be the ticket!

[SirShazar]

Unless you constantly stir the onions in the oven, you're gonna have dry, burnt tips. What I suggest you try if you don't mind the extra pot and a lot of oil, is to first deep fry the onions for about a minute, and than saute them in the pan to caramelize.

It seemed to work pretty well for me when making home fries.

[Jim Cooley]

I thought of deep-frying, but it's such a hassle and mess. You're right about the browned tips, though.

I think I'll combine both your suggestions and try a batch at 300, stirring every 15 minutes, for an hour...or more. At least with such a slow heat I won't have to watch it like a hawk.

Here's the recipe: http://www.recipe-ideas.co.uk/recipes-6/Chicken%20Vindaloo.htm. Came out great! (I skipped the potatoes, though)

[DrBiggles]

[IDontUse]

Are the onions staying in the soup? or is it for flavor/color. A common method for some soups, such as Consomme, is an Oignon Brulee. You can simply put a half onion in a saute pan or grill on high heat with no oil until it gets a dark brown, somewhat black color on one side.

[alexzeevy]

I also agree that you should keep the heat on the low side. My trick is to always use a non-stick pan and to add a little sugar right about half way through cooking. It works like a kickstart for the onions to caramelise. Strangely enough, it seems to me that caramelization takes longer when there's a lot of oil.

Cheers!

[celdd]

I recently discovered that the crock pot (slow cooker) does a good job.

For mine, the basic Rival standard size pot, I just peel and slice 6 onions and put in the pot with a little salt. Let cook on low overnight. No water or oil needed.

In the morning you have carmelized onions to use for whatever you like.

[Jim Cooley]

[celdd]

The crockpot I have is the very cheapest one, like this: http://www.amazon.com/Crock-2dPot-Slow-Cooker-Black-qt-2e-29/dp/B0012US88I/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1268604758&sr=8-23

I got it for $20 a year or two ago at Target or Big Lots or something.

By the way, the cut up onions pretty much fill the crockpot up to the top. When cooked, they reduce to fill a one-quart Ball jar.

[Jim Cooley]

Heh, I just tried that recipe again, but used a pressure cooker to pre-cook the onions.

First time was a bust: I let them cook for 3-4 minutes.

2nd time was perfect: bring to full pressure (over, not IN) an inch of water, take off heat and cool rapidly.

Then brown them. Goes very quickly, and YES, less oil is better. You still have to stand and stir them for a few minutes, but it takes far less time than doing it the old-fashioned way.

Watch the heat! Don't want it too hot.