marylanglin.com

… the recipe I made for last night’s MLFB cookie exchange:

Real Onion Dip

(slightly adapted from “The Improvisational Cook” by Sally Schneider)

2 pounds yellow onions, peeled and sliced thinly (1/8”)

2 Tbsp unsalted butter, olive oil or, like I used,  bacon fat

1/2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste

1/2 tsp sugar

Freshly ground black pepper

1 cup Greek yogurt (or, if you and dairy are on speaking terms, sour cream)

Melt butter or bacon fat in a large nonstick, cast-iron or otherwise heavy skillet over moderately low heat. Add onions, sprinkle with salt and toss to coat. Cover and cook until the onions have released their liquid (13-15 minutes). Uncover, increase the heat to moderate, and, stirring occasionally,  cook until the liquid has evaporated (about another 10 minutes or so). Sprinkle with the sugar and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the onions are caramelized. (Schneider says this should take about another 10 minutes, but it took me a good 20-25 minutes–maybe I was just being too conservative with the heat. If I hadn’t been in such a hurry, I would’ve taken some photos of the stages of the process, but, suffice it to say, you want these puppies to be a really rich, mahogany brown.) Remove from the heat, salt and pepper to taste, and let cool.

At this point, you should have approximately 1 cup of caramelized onions (if, for some reason, you have more than that, you can always keep them in the fridge to use elsewhere–they should keep at least 4 days). Chop the onions finely, and mix with the yogurt/sour cream. Add more salt and/or pepper if you feel it needs it, or maybe a squeeze or two of lemon juice.

Personally, I thought this dip wasn’t bad, but it was a little on the sweet side. I’m thinking next time, I might experiment with adding a bit of beef stock somewhere in the process (to give it more of a French Onion-y flavor), or maybe just some finely chopped bacon.