Onion Recipes

Onion Jam

click here to see a close up of the onion jam

• 4 Tablespoons olive oil

• 3 pounds onions, sliced about 1/4 inch thick (3-4 bunches walla wallas)

• 2 teaspoons fresh, chopped oregano

• S & P

• 1 cup white wine

• dash vinegar or lemon juice

In a big frying pan, heat oil on medium heat. Add onions and oregano, stir up some, then cover. Cook about 5 minutes, then turn heat to low and add about a teaspoon of salt. Cook covered about 20-25 minutes, then add wine, toss and cover. About every 20 or so minutes stir up a bit. After about an hour, or when you hear the hiss and sizzle, start stirring more frequently. When they've browned up quite a bit add the dash of vinegar/lemon juice and season to taste with pepper and more salt if you like.

* This recipe sounds like a lot of work but it's not, especially if you're in the kitchen already doing other things. This ‘onion jam' is heavenly as a cheese-replacement for quesadillas, especially with the mushroom and zucchini addition.

Dal: Classic Lentils as prepared by Momina Hayat Banday, written from Julia's memory

Momina was my good friend I met while we were both living at the Beijing Metallurgy Institute in ‘87-‘88. All the ‘foreigners' lived together, it was in that building that I learned about cooking in Senegal, Japan and Pakistan. The following summer Momina came to visit me in California and we continued to cook together. (See photo, above.)

Here's her recipe for dal, the thick lentil soup that is common in at least Pakistan, and I've read it's also common in many parts of India, but maybe not always with so many onions! Momina always liked to have this simple version available to eat with whatever else we were eating, but this dish can also be fancied up with sliced greens, cilantro, grated carrots, etc.

2 cups masoor dal (red lentils), or brown lentils

2 bunches bianco di maggio onions, tails removed, cleaned, and sliced in thin crescents

1 teaspoon tumeric

1 teaspoon ground cumin

pinch cayenne

S & P

cooking oil

Rinse the lentils, then cover in a large saucepan with 8 cups of water and bring to a boil. Simmer on low for about an hour until soft, partially covered. Heat the oil over a medium flame, then add the onion pieces with the tumeric and cumin and S & P. (Madhur Jaffrey recommends putting the tumeric in with the boiling dal, and adding the salt to the boiled dal once cooked through, I don't remember the exact order with Momina's recipe.) Cook the onions, stirring often, until onion is well browned but not burned. Add the cayenne, if using. Add the onions to the dal once it's cooked through. Stir and eat with yogurt and or other dishes.

Jiao Zi

These are the famous dumplings of northern China. They are often fried up in Chinese restaurants here, and called ‘pot stickers'. But in the homes of many people in Beijing and I imagine other cities and towns as well, it is traditional to get together and make these dumplings which are then boiled and eaten with chopped raw garlic marinated in dark Chinese vinegar. There are many many recipes and ideas on how to make jiao zi, the folks that I cooked with and learned from in China always told me how everyone makes jiao zi with what ever is in season, hence the recipe below.

The simple instructions to this recipe are:

1. Make the meat filling that looks a little like raw meatloaf mixture.

2.Gather willing hands to help fill the jiaozi skins, which can be made with flour and water at home or purchased at most grocery stores near where the tofu, won ton skins and bean sprouts are sold.

3. Fill the skins and seal with a dab of water.

4. Boil like you would raw tortellini. I've always just tested, I don't have hard numbers on how long to boil. You could look in a Chinese cookbook or google it. (I've now heard at least two other people use that as a verb, and I am my own editor so I'm using it here.)

5. Eat with a sauce made up of dark Chinese vinegar or balsamic, with chopped garlic sitting in the little vinegar bowl. You can add small amounts of soy sauce and sesame oil if desired.

Meat filling ingredients, please change at will to what you have on hand:

Ground beef and pork, 1 pound each

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons black pepper

1 teaspoon white pepper

2 teaspoons Japanese Mirin or brandy

1 Tablespoon sesame oil

3 medium onions, chopped fine

2 cloves garlic, chopped fine

3 carrots, shredded fine small amount of shredded chard or cabbage, blanched first then chopped