Food. Fashion. Art. : Onion Gratin

Delicious Onion Gratin

A long time ago, my grandmother, (standing in her kitchen wearing her long nightgown, holding a glass of white wine) said that a dish she had made was "au gratin." Me, being about 6 years old or so, heard "all rotten". It was right then that I made a very misinformed judgement that all things 'au gratin' were 'all rotten' and thus, very disgusting.

It took years for me to remember this moment and finally figure out where my repulsion toward anything that was called 'au gratin' came from. Now, I just think of it as being extremely delicious.

A Costco sized bag of onions that were going to be 'all rotten' if I didn't use them soon- led me to this fantastic recipe. http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Creamed-Onion-Gratin

I only had to make a few changes to make it Gluten Free and it is SERIOUSLY, seriously good. I would not go another week without trying it. I almost guarantee you will fall in love.

Creamy Onion Gratin

(with some zucchini, 'cuz I had some left over from making zucchini chips)

Ingredients:

2 medium yellow onions, cored and quartered lengthwise
two handfuls of zucchini rounds, cut in half (optional)
¼ cup olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tbsp. white rice flour
1 tbsp. corn starch
1 cup heavy cream
¼ cup dry white wine, plus more for drinking
½ cup finely grated Parmesan
3 oz. Gorgonzola, crumbled
¼ tsp. paprika (I used smoked paprika)

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Place the onion (and Zucchini, if using) in a 9x9 baking dish (9x11 would work too).

3. Pour the olive oil over the top and toss the veggies.

4. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and place in the oven for one hour, until the onions are lightly browned, stirring every 15-20 minutes.

5. When the onions have about 8 minutes left, begin melting the butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat

6. These next few steps need to happen pretty quickly, so get your ingredients ready to go. Measure out the heavy cream. Add the wine to it, reserve. Measure out the flour and corn starch, mix them together and reserve.

7. As soon as the butter is melted, add the flour/corn starch and whisk constantly, until it is smooth, about 20 seconds. As soon as it is smooth, add the cream/wine mixture, whisking constantly. Remember: over medium heat only. You do not want the mixture to begin to bubble very much at all. This will burn your flours and make them taste bad. Also, the milk will scorch and stick to the bottom of your sauce pan, which is a pain to remove and then you have to start over :'(

8. The sauce will begin to thicken- you want it to be the consistency of melted ice cream, or a light alfredo sauce...

9. Remove the onions from the oven and pour the milk mixture over the top. Kind-of mix it around, making sure that it is all covered evenly.