Glazed French onions. How to glaze vegetables

How to make glazed onions . It has been a long time since I wrote about any cooking technique and the icing technique is one of the usual ones at home.

A simple culinary practice that involves coating a food with a shiny, often sweet substance, and turns simple onions like these into a haute cuisine accompaniment.

It can be applied to vegetables, white meat or fish. The vegetables are cooked in very little water or in a base broth, butter, salt and sugar that, when reduced during cooking, will give them a shiny finish and a tender texture. Meats and fish are spread before cooking with the same reduced cooking juice or with a mixture that we have prepared before, and then serve them with a shiny appearance.

You can make your glaze with many vegetables and tubers, the most recommended are chives, onions, onions, carrots, zucchini, garlic, turnips, potatoes, discarding those that are very soft or porous such as eggplant, the result is not as expected.

In this case I teach you how to do it with  some French onions to accompany a spectacular sirloin . It is an ideal garnish, because it can be prepared beforehand for a special lunch or dinner. Even a few days before and that way you will have much more time for last minute preparations. I leave you with the preparation that is very simple, perfect for these dates, Christmas . 

Types of frosting

• We have two different techniques for the same ingredient.
• On the one hand, the white frosting , in which the peeled vegetables or tubers are placed in a pot and cooked with water. For that you have to add butter, sugar and salt at the end of cooking. Cook over low heat until the liquid is reduced, at the end of cooking we will only have to bathe the onions with the reduction.
• And the other technique is brown icing, it is the same as the previous one but at the end of cooking we must reduce the liquid further until it turns a caramel color, that’s why the name “brown”.

Preparation of the glazed onions

1. The most representative garnish, especially when we go to eat at a restaurant, is this type of onion. You will find it with the name of pearl and that you can find in all supermarkets and department stores.
2. The first thing we must do is prepare the ingredients. We clean and cut, although not in excess because if we cut the ends of the onion too much, they will end up separating the layers of it, it is best to leave it almost flush with the stem.
3. If we are going to use another type of vegetable (since the technique works for almost all of them, varying the cooking times). For example some carrots, we will shape them and then apply the technique.
4. Peel the onions, remove the first layers and cut the base a little, until completely peeled. Place in a saucepan, so that they are not piled up.
5. Add the butter, sugar and salt.
6. We spend a minute over medium heat to seal them. Later we pour the water so that it covers the onions flush. No more because it would be excessive.
7. You can even put a little less water and then add if necessary in the cooking.
8. We can also apply the technique with a dark meat background, a good stream of Pedro Ximénez or Oporto instead of water.

Glaze and final presentation of French onions

1. We cover them and put them to cook, leaving it to breathe with the lid on its side, since part of the liquid must evaporate.
2. Cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes. Depending on the size of the chives it can be more or less, but they should be tender. We will know because we can easily insert the tip of a knife.
3. We will allow to reduce patiently, while we make circular movements so that the onions are caramelized little by little. The liquid will gradually evaporate.
4. When it has completely reduced and the chives have a nice caramel color, remove from heat. Sauce with the caramel that may have been in the bottom of the casserole and let cool.
5.  They can also be made in white using the same system but with less sugar and without being caramelized. This is an excellent way to accompany meats to succeed at all friends’ dinners or family gatherings.

A different option to the classic fried potatoes, lettuce or tomato salads, which although they accompany the meats wonderfully are highly regarded. I hope you like it and prepare them for your next dinner or lunch.