Another question: I will be buying frozen pearl onions to carmelize & serve with green beans...

luisa_calif

Well-known member
How to carmelize, sautee with butter & brown sugar? Should I add some Balsamic at the end? Can I do a day ahead? If I can't find the onions I will sub shallots (we grew them lst summer so I have lots, I just didn't want to peel them on an already busy day, thus the choice of frozen pearls)

 
Oh how I hate to be a kill-joy but have you used the frozen pearl onions before?

I made that mistake once and they were awful. Actually, I bought several bags and tried using them in different ways and they always tasted horrible. I will never use them again!

 
No, I haven't. Were they watery from being frozen? Could you describe what you didn't like? I was

trying to save some prep time plus the fresh pearl onions I found were kind of bigger than I want for the purpose.

 
Yes Luisa, I should have done that in the first place. They were Bird's Eye

brand so not some off kind of brand. And I bought them for the same reason you want them...the time saver of pealing them. The first time I used them was in Beef Burgundy and they had a really STRONG, bitter onion flavor and believe me, we love onions! Just a very nasty strong flavor. The directions said you could just add them frozen so I just put them in the pot. After they were cooked I found they also had not removed the outside tough layer. So the next time I used them, can't remember what it was in, I defrosted them and removed the tough layer. Still strong, nasty oniony flavor. This was two completly different bags so can't be just a bad batch. I don't know how you do them but I blanch them in boiling water for about 45 sec. and then rinse in cold water until cool. I cut the root end and then just pinch until it pops out. I don't know a faster way. Wish I could come help you do them.

 
Luisa, I'm not sure where in CA you are, but look for "Melissa" brand fresh onions in a red mesh

pouch. They're usually smaller than the loose ones available.

It's so tedious peeling them but I don't think there really is a substitute for the fresh ones.

 
We have Christopher Ranch ( from Gilroy-I think)...but this is what I did...

Time came a-crunching and everything else was ready but the beans so I abandoned the whole onion idea & went with the steamed beans solo. Maybe another time...I'll test drive the recipe before then.

 
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