Peeling onions isn't everyone's favorite job, but I personally love it. it's relatively mindless and robotic, and although onion is considered a stinky vegetable that makes you cry, I personally find its aroma quite intoxicating. I find it difficult to cook without onion for this reason - every main meal I cook uses onion. Even though my kids complain about the strong smell when I'm peeling onions, they always ask me what delicious food I'm making once the onions start cooking. Onions are like salt - they add that special oomph to a meal.
A bit of trivia: new research using state-of-the-art laboratory techniques show that cheap onion waste (ie the bits that we throw away: the top, root and dry matter of the onion) has applications as a good source of cheap green synthetic anti-oxidant material (from a study conducted at MAICh.
Here's a simple no-fuss recipe for pork steaks in an onion sauce, which I made quite regularly throughout the winter. (I'd make it now too, because it's really simple, but it's nearing Easter, so we're clearing our freezer and not buying any new meat to make way for lamb.)
You need:
5-10 large onions (as many as you feel like peeling)
some olive oil to saute onions
4 large pork steaks
half a cup of olive oil
half a cup of wine
half a cup prepared mustard
salt, pepper and oregano
Peel onions and slice thickly. Saute in a pan till limp and transparent, but not for a long time. Transfer them to a baking tin (I use a round 30cm tapsi). Lay the cleaned pork steaks over them. In a bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients, and spoon over the pork steaks. Add half a cup of water. Place them baking tin in the oven and cook on moderate heat for 45-60 minutes. Then turn the steaks and let them cook for another 20 minutes or so. (That's it.)
The onion sauce makes the steaks quite heavy, so I don't usually serve carbohydrates with this dish, except bread, which we use to mop up the oily onion sauce. All it needs is a fresh leafy salad and some cold beer.
©All Rights Reserved/Organically cooked. No part of this blog may be reproduced and/or copied by any means without prior consent from Maria Verivaki.
A bit of trivia: new research using state-of-the-art laboratory techniques show that cheap onion waste (ie the bits that we throw away: the top, root and dry matter of the onion) has applications as a good source of cheap green synthetic anti-oxidant material (from a study conducted at MAICh.
The onion seller is a regular sight in Crete in mid-summer. We bought a couple of braids from this man in mid-July and hung them up under a balcony staircase. In a cool, airy spot, they won't sprout. These onion braids last us about 8 months.
Here's a simple no-fuss recipe for pork steaks in an onion sauce, which I made quite regularly throughout the winter. (I'd make it now too, because it's really simple, but it's nearing Easter, so we're clearing our freezer and not buying any new meat to make way for lamb.)
You need:
5-10 large onions (as many as you feel like peeling)
some olive oil to saute onions
4 large pork steaks
half a cup of olive oil
half a cup of wine
half a cup prepared mustard
salt, pepper and oregano
Peel onions and slice thickly. Saute in a pan till limp and transparent, but not for a long time. Transfer them to a baking tin (I use a round 30cm tapsi). Lay the cleaned pork steaks over them. In a bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients, and spoon over the pork steaks. Add half a cup of water. Place them baking tin in the oven and cook on moderate heat for 45-60 minutes. Then turn the steaks and let them cook for another 20 minutes or so. (That's it.)The onion sauce makes the steaks quite heavy, so I don't usually serve carbohydrates with this dish, except bread, which we use to mop up the oily onion sauce. All it needs is a fresh leafy salad and some cold beer.
©All Rights Reserved/Organically cooked. No part of this blog may be reproduced and/or copied by any means without prior consent from Maria Verivaki.
Onions are the perfect accompaniment for many meals year round!
ReplyDeleteWow, Maria! That sounds so YUUUUUMMMMMY! Just this morning while trying to do some extra cleaning in the kitchen I picked up a colander of onions that were losing their dry, flaky outer coating. That stuff gets everywhere. I cleaned the onions of most of the stuff and should have put it in the compost. But, for some reason my hubby doesn't want onion skin in the compost. I thought about how all my recipes for wonderful savory dishes include onion. I read somewhere that onions are the most important vegetable used in India, too. I have a hard time when I am chopping onions. My sniffer,which has malfunctioned for almost three years, makes the smell extra strong and weird. But...I can still eat them! Now I need to read what you said about MAICH, whatever that is.
ReplyDeletePork & Onions - can't have enough!! This looks so delicious.
ReplyDelete