Hello dear Gallus! I have a culinary question for you- a some point if I remember right, you said that you caramelize onions and freeze them for the days you need caramelized onions but do not have the spoons to caramelized onions. A friend just made french onion soup and now that she went through caramlizing a lot of onions (and an amazing soup), I suddenly understand very much why having caramelized onions in the backhand is absolutely awesome.
So my question is on hearing your wisdom on caramelized onions: Do you freeze them or deep freeze them? What container is the best for storing them? Is there a certaine process in heating them up again? And does the freezing changes the taste?
...I think i had never written the word caramelized so often.
Thank you for your answer!
Caramelized Onion Wisdom:
- just do a whole fucking bag of them at once, you WILL use all of it, and you don't want to run out halfway through the cold months.
- Open ALL the windows in your residence before this undertaking. It also takes like, three to four hours for me, so maybe pop on a playlist or smth.
- It takes several hours for me because my specific technique is to put in like 2-3 onions (chopped) in first, and adding one more chopped onion at a time as the cooking onions shrink and make more room. This means that by the time I get to the 12th or 20th onion at the end of the bag, the first onions are MEGA CARAMELIZED.
- Use yellow onions, cook with butter and fresh thyme, deglaze with brandy or sweet resiling and add a bit of balsamic vinegar at the very end for best results.
- I run mine through an immersion blender after I cook them because my autistic ass hates cooked onion texture, and I tolerate the caramelized mush better. I'm also usually using it as a condiment or as part of a sauce, I want that very smooth texture.
- I don't actually know the difference between freezing and deep freezing. I just put them in the freezer and gradually get to them when I get to them.
- the best container is a glass one with a re-sealable lid and on the small side. This is because plastic.can shatter in the freezer, and in order to use the onions, you take the container out of the freezer and let it defrost in the fridge, taking spoonfuls out as-needed. Small container means you are only using a bit of the whole stash at a time, so the whole doesn't go bad while thawed in the fridge if you're delayed from using it.
- the flavor really improves with freezing tbh. Gets a lot deeper and sweeter, and the texture gets finer so it blends into whatever sauce or dish even better.
- you can put caramelized Onion goop in and on like. Pretty much anything. In curry. On salmon burger. As part of charcuterie board. Eat it with a spoon during your annual mid-winter Seasonal Affective Disorder nervous breakdown! The possibilities are endless!!
