Caramelised Onion - for tartlets etc

[bron]

Mini Tartlets filled with Caramelised Onions & Goats Cheese:
Makes 24 mini tarts full or small/medium tupperware:
Ingredients:
700g onions (cut into quarters)
70g butter
30g olive oil
teaspoon salt
30g liquid caramel
pinch pepper

24 tartlets (puff pastry or shortcrust pastry)
goats cheese
Preparation:
Chop onions 4 seconds, speed 5. Clean sides down and add butter and olive oil, program 30 mins Temp Varoma, soft speed, reverse (anticlockwise). Then add salt, liquid caramel and pepper and program 3 mins, 100º speed 1.

Fill tartlets with spoonful of onion and place piece of cheese on top. Grill a few mins.

Photos:

Tips/Hints:
Will keep in seal proof jar or tupper in fridge. Mine lasted 2 weeks, it was delicious
Can use to accompany meat, on toast, with cheese.

Hope you can get liquid caramel. If not let me know and I will post the recipe. Can't be made in THX

[Thermomixer]

Thanks Amanda - I love caramelised onions.

Not sure if we can get liquid caramel here ( is that another Royal??).  May have to try adding some sugar to the onions at beginning of cooking to see if it does something similar.

Hope you can get liquid caramel. If not let me know and I will post the recipe. Can't be made in THX

I tried making caramel with sugar, then fruit sugar and then glucose (which have lower caramelising temperatures) but just got hot sugar and never browned. 

[bron]

Well the caramel is easy enough to make, just not in the THX

[Thermomixer]

Thanks - I'll make up a batch (on the stove) and store ready for use.

[Amanda]

Instead of caramel in the onions, I think that brown sugar would work.

[Thermomixer]

Memories of Greg Malouf's onion jam - did I ever post that recipe?

[CarolineW]

Thanks for posting, Bron!  Can't get liquid caramel either.  Think I'll try brown sugar, like Amanda suggested.  Also a batch with very high quality balsamic, too.  That's very sweet.  Two lots of caramelised onions!  Once again, I sacrifice myself for the sake of scientific research, thanks to Bron    Better do it fast before our juice diet starts!

[bron]

You bet!!! Just been to the greengrocers in the village to start stocking up on some fruit & veg. He was very pleased to see me!!!
Have a business lunch tomorrow, and will start on Thursday! 5 kilos here we go!

[Amanda]

Excellent idea with the balsamic, Caroline!  I have a bottle of 25 year old balsamic, but I won't be using that one!!
I adore caramelised onions.  They are delicious on homemade pizza with chicken, roasted pumpkin, feta and spiced up with some ras el hanout!

[Thermomixer]

Made caramelised onions with the brown sugar last night - steamed some pumpkin/sweet potato/carrot over the top to make use of the steam.

I used almost no oil/butter but added some water - about 1 tbsp and 2 tbsp of brown sugar.

Worked a treat - but 1.5kg onions disappeared to about 1 cup of caramelised onion - and we ate about half with sausages.

Photo later.

[CarolineW]

Excellent idea with the balsamic, Caroline!  I have a bottle of 25 year old balsamic, but I won't be using that one!!
I adore caramelised onions.  They are delicious on homemade pizza with chicken, roasted pumpkin, feta and spiced up with some ras el hanout!

Yum!  That sounds fantastic.  Will definitely need to try that one.  Had to Wiki Ras el hanout to find out what it is 

[Thermomixer]

LOL - I used ras el hanout in the pumpkin, sweet potato stew and didn't  see that it was Amanda's quote - thought - how did you know about the ras el hanout??

Read the post properly.  .

I second the ras el hanout idea.

Something else to try is Chinese Black Vinegar. (I think from Chinkiang) It is very cheap and gives a flavour very similar to balsamico.

It is used mainly for dipping steamed dumplings.

Googled and found this http://chinesefood.about.com/cs/sauces/a/ricevinegar.htm where they say that it can be used as a substitute for balsamic. 

A picture of what to look for http://chinesefood.about.com/library/blphotoblackricevin.htm

[CarolineW]

Brilliant tips, Thermomixer - thanks.

[Tenina]

If you have enough patience, you can caramelize onions in the TM...place 4-5 halved onions into TM bowl and without chopping, add 50g brown sugar, 50g olive oil, pinch salt and a dash of balsamic and then cook with MC off for around 30-45 minutes at 90oC on speed 1. You will need to check the liquid occasionally to ensure you don't burn your bowl. The amount of liquid will vary from onion to onion! I have done this a few times now, and they are divine...and no standing around stirring!

[Thermomixer]

THanks Tenina - I did pretty much the same - but placed a little water in base to reduce the chances of burning/sticking.  I do the same with onions on stove top - a little water and sweat before full-on caramelising.