Norn Iron Chef® Recipe

Knowing your Onions
(and a wee bit more)

The Onion is an indispensable flavouring agent and vegetable. It is inexpensive and available throughout the year.

The mildest and best used to be the Spanish onion, but various mild onions have been produced, and one of the sweetest and mildest in Washington State U.S.A. is the now famous Walla Walla sweets. They were originally advertised as being able to be picked up and eaten like an Apple. They are particularly flavourful if paired with sliced tomatoes and a little light sprinkling of Olive oil and Balsamic vinegar.

If an onion is considered too strong for a recipe, it may be blanched in boiling water before cooking by any of the following methods:

Boiled Onions with white sauce: If possible choose medium sized onions suitable for cooking whole. Otherwise the large ones must be cut in two or quartered. Boil in salted water until tender. The time will vary according to the size of the onion, but allow approximately 1 -2 hours. Drain thoroughly, if necessary returning them to the pan to dry out over a gentle heat so that no liquid remains to spoil the sauce. Arrange in a hot dish and coat with the white sauce.

In Ireland the old ones, and maybe some of the young ones, did not bother about adding the sauce. That is because they were using the boiled onion for the curing of having taken too much “sauce”. An old stable for ”too much drink taken” was to boil a few onions in a pot of water and mash the onion in the broth drink it and they were soon as “right as rain”. On a Saturday night walking through the village delivering “The Belfast Telegraph”, and later on around 9 o’clock, ‘The Saturday Night” the smell of onions could have choked a horse. Next morning all the partakers of the onion broth were up, washed, and combed and with their Sunday best on sitting on the pews, faces shining, singing the praises of The Almighty, like butter had never melted in their mouths.

As some of you may already know, it was the Irish who reintroduced Christianity to the French in 583 A.D... St. Columbanus, born in West Leinster, Ireland, approximately 543 until November 21st 615, was a disciple of St. Comgall who founded the monasteries in Bangor, (known as Bangor Mor, or Bangor the Great) and Movilla, creating a new town of the Ards peninsula, Newtownards, Co. Down. Walking between the monasteries there was the even more ancient site of Conlig, so named as the army of King Conn (and Himself) was reputed to have ligged or lodged there on his way to battle. Even more ancient ones than Himself have lodged there as well, and there is a Standing stone in situ surrounded by a sea of green. Long revered by the men (and some women) who carry long sticks and hit wee balls all over the place, accompanied by the aroma of onions being fried up at the 19th hole. By the age of forty the handsome Columbanus, with some other monks, left the shores of Ireland and went off to the Frankish territory, now France, to re introduce the Christian way of life to the populous who had reverted to the pagan ways under Rome. Early in his life, Columbanus had had to take the cowl and enter the Church at Lough Erne as he was so good looking (Bond ,James Bond) that all the Irish women were chasing after him and he got tired of having to tell them to “Ger off , youse yins, and lav me alone or I’m fer tellin’ me mammy” .

So the question that springs to mind is , was Boiled Onion introduced to the French who took it as their own and made the now famous French Onion soup, or was it the pagan Franks who introduced it to the now Irish Saints? Either way, try boiled onions and the white onion sauce to accompany them.
 

ONION SAUCE
1 onion
1 half pint of milk, or1 cup
1 tablespoonful of flour (or Corn flour)
Salt and pepper to taste.

Slice or chop the onion and stew in the greater part of the milk until tender. Meanwhile, blend the seasoned flour with the remainder of the milk and use to thicken the onion mixture. Cook well.
 

FRENCH ONION SOUP.
1-2 Spanish onions
1 and one half oz of butter or margarine.
1 half oz of flour
1 and one half pints (2 and a half cups) of stock or water
Salt and pepper to taste
1 bay-leaf
Slices of French bread.
Grated Cheese.

Cut the onion in thin slices. Melt the butter. Add the onions and cook slowly together until the vegetable is brown.

Dust in the flour.

Pour on the boiling stock and seasoning and bay-leaf and simmer for 1 half hour, remove the bay-leaf.

To serve: Put a few slices of oven toasted French bread in the bottom of a casserole , pour the hot soup over, sprinkle with the grated cheese and brown in a hot oven.

Alternatively, if French bread is not available, butter a slice of fresh toast, cut into cubes, toss in grated cheese and brown in a hot oven, or use the broiler in the microwave. Float these croutons on the top of the soup.

“Bon Appetite” as the French say, or as many an the Irish mother been known to say, ”Shut yer bake, and get it down ye”!