^{Downsizing Caramelised and Sautéed Onions}

Caramelised onions are vital to a happy life, but cooked in lashings of butter or olive oil they are not conducive to a thinner life. So finding a way of cooking them that made them taste amazing without using a bucketful of oil or a barrel of butter, was like discovering the secret of turning straw into gold.

Caramelised or sautéed?

These terms are often used interchangeably, which is fair enough, given that either are a bit of both.   However, I tend to think of sautéed as cooked at a slightly higher temperature for between 15 and 30 minutes, with result glistening and golden brown, and caramelised as cooked at a lower temperature for between 30 and 60 minutes, by which time the onions have lost all sense of personal identity, are soft and densely sweet. 

N.B. Have nothing to do with instructions that call for cooking onions till soft for 2 minutes... or 5 minutes.   Onions do not cook in 5 minutes.

Quantity of oil or butter:

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1 teaspoon for up to 300g / 2 medium onions,

Plus ½  – 1 teaspoon of oil for the pan.

You can use more oil or butter than this, but you cannot use less. 

Using 2 teaspoons per 300g does make them fractionally nicer, but I am coming round to the view that using more oil than that doesn’t actually make much difference: it is the natural sweetness of the onions – and caramelising it – that make them taste so divine, rather than the quantity of oil or butter*.

*I would like to make it clear that I am a HUGE fan of both, and I only avoid them in big quantities because they are very calorie-dense.

Method

1. Finely slice the onions with the grain rather than across it. Put them in a bowl with a good pinch of salt*, and add the oil.
2. Use your hands to mix the oil into the onions, ensuring that they are really, really well-coated.  It is this thorough mixing that makes it possible to use so little oil and still get a delicious result.     
3. If using butter, melt it first, before adding it to the onions.
4. Depending on size of the pan, heat ½  – 1 teaspoon of olive oil in the pan till it has spread out to cover the base, so you are not putting cold onions straight onto hot metal or non-stick coating. 

* Adding a pinch of salt at the same time as the oil draws out the juice, which helps with the caramelisation, and brings out the sweetness of the onion – think salted caramel.

 For sautéed:

1. Heat the oil on a middling heat until it covers the base of the pan, and add the onions. Stir them, put a lid on the pan, and turn the heat down a tad.
2. Keep the lid on for at least five minutes – it helps the onions cook without drying out. Stir fairly frequently.
3. After 5 – 10 minutes, take the lid off to condense the juices and cook till they are as brown as you want, and have the right amount of bite – or lack of it – for whatever you have in mind for them. The exact timing will depend on the onions, the heat, the pan, and whether you wander off and start doing something else.

For caramelised

1.           Heat a teaspoon of oil in a pan on a low to medium heat until it has spread out to cover the whole of the base.
2.           Add the onions. When they start to sizzle a little, stir, put a lid on them, and turn the heat right down.
3.           Leave them on a low heat until the juices are beginning to come out – about 10 minutes.
4.           For the next 20 – 40 minutes (depending on onions, heat, and pan), stir from time to time, and turn the heat up a bit and down a bit, depending on whether you want to encourage them or stop them burning or drying out.
5.             Towards the end, take the lid off and turn the heat up a little to reduce the liquid and intensify the sweetness. Stir often at this stage. It would be tragic after all this time to burn the onions.

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