Your brother in law will never joke about your cooking again.
Forget the jar or fozen white pearl onions. Those are junky fillers.
This is the real thing and well worth the time. Actually these
are time consuming but not hard.
You’ll need, cream, (heavy is perfect but light is fine),
canned/boxed chicken broth. Don’t use homemade
leave that in the freezer for my Four Onion Soup.
2 lbs white pearl onions. 1 Tablespoon dried
chicken broth.
Peeling these babies is a pain.
Boil water in a 2 quart pot.
Put in onions….in portions.
Remove after 3-4 mins.. use a strainer
to lift, or large slotted spoon.
Have a bowl of cold water in the sink,
as you remove the onions, drop into the bowl.
It takes a while, it’s not a fast process. You’re
creating a lovely dish, enjoy the time. Open some
wine.
Put away the wine, and get out a sharp paring knife.
Strain the onions from the cold water. Now you’re
going to peel the onions. The papery covering should
slip, however it doesn’t always work that way. With
the knife remove it and trim the root.
It’s a slippery and sloppy job.
You’ll make a mess.
This is why people don’t bother. And this is why
this delicious dish is ignored. UNTIL you serve it
and THEN they drool.
Nothing is so glamerous…. The delicate cream
onion flavor, slipping into the stuffing, or
forming a current with the gravy. You can’t
accomplish this with jar or frozen onions.
BACK to reality. In a 2 quart pot boil add
the store bought chicken broth.
add the peeled onions.
Let boil
then turn to a simmer. You want to
be able to slide a sharp knife into
the onion with no effort.
The outer skin might slip off, that’s okay.
This should take about 20 mins. Drain the
onions. I save about a cup of the chicken broth water for
the turkey, or roast beef gravy.
Put the cooked onions aside…
Into a saute pan put a tab of butter, a pinch of dried
chicken broth (no more than a pinch) a tablespoon
of flour.
Warm the pan letting the flour absorb the warm butter
till there are no lumps and it’s velvet smooth.
…
Slowly add cream in half cup portions. After each addition make sure the
cream is well mixed with the flour. This is about 1 1/2 cups.
See how it’s thick but not pancake batter
thick. This is enough for the amount of onions I’m making. The cream sauce
will thicken if it remains over the heat. Adding the cooked onions that have
absorbed some of the chicken broth will thin it over time. If it’s too thick
(you don’t want it to be pasty), add a little more cream or milk. Do not
add chicken broth. If you do it will start tasting like creamed soup.
(I’ve done it trust me hehehe)
Refrigerate overnight. Bring to room temp. before reheating.
Sprinkle with a little paprika ..for color. Or serve as is.
