Recipe: Onion Straws

[ellyssian]

• 1 large white onion
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 cup white flour
• 3/4 cup wheat flour
• 1/4 cup corn meal
• chipotle chile powder
• fresh ground black pepper
• 1 quart canola oil

Mix milk with lemon juice. Let stand 10-15 minutes. Or spend more money to buy fake buttermilk that is made pretty much the same way. Or spend even more money and buy traditional buttermilk.

~ ~ ~

Slice onion in half, root to tip. If you feel you can slice in mid-air, without support, go ahead; I did that with the first onion and it didn't work so well.

Place the onion half freshly-cut side down. Starting at the tip, slice as thin as you can and still have the knife somewhere near the onion. You should be able to see the knife through the onion.

Repeat with the other half.

~ ~ ~

Separate onion bits and place in a large glass dish.

Pour buttermilk over the onion.

Allow to sit for 1 hour.

~ ~ ~

Mix flours together.

Add spices. Go heavy on the black pepper, it's better that way.

I also added some ground white pepper and a pinch or two of tarragon, but the latter was inconsequential and the former works just as well as more ground pepper.

~ ~ ~

Pre-heat canola oil in saute pan, dutch oven, or other appropriate container, to 350 degrees.

Pick up onions from buttermilk, drop into the flour mix.

Shake the extra flour off, drop the coated onions in the oil.

By the time you mix the next batch of milky onions in the flour, the ones in the oil will be cooked.

They go real quick, so keep an eye on them.

Place on a paper towel to drain.

~ ~ ~

Make sure you eat them before anyone else realizes they're ready. Or make two onions worth, which is what I did.

Also, for best results, use one set of tongs in the milk/onion mix, another in the flour, and a third (I used a metal slotted spoon for this one) to scoop them from the oil. I'm thinking of getting some metal mesh screened pans to shake more of the excess flour off before they go in the oil; the excess sludge really drops the temperature of the oil pretty quickly. Any ideas on keeping that to a limited quantity would be welcome!

Comments

yummy

[blood-of-winter.livejournal.com]

mmmmmmm!!


maybe try putting a cookie cooling rack on top of a baking pan and transfer the battered there for a minute before frying?

Re: yummy

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

That would work with the bigger bits, but I know I had some pieces that would be too small.

The ideal situation might be two sifter pans - where you can toss the onion in, shake it around and lift it out, then dump the onions into the oil, and dump the flour on top of the next round of onions...

You could do it with one and an extra bowl to take/dump the flour, but two would be really slick... =)

Re: yummy

[patrixa.livejournal.com]

or, if you have one of those round-over-the-pan spatter preventers -- its mesh would be fine enough to hold the bits.

Re: yummy

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

I do have one, but it was in use in the splatter-prevention department. Although if I have need of a strainer again without worrying about splatter at the same time, I'll have to remember that!