I just love onions in all their shapes, forms and tastes. They are included in so many recipes for beef, chicken, soups, fish and vegetarian dishes and are a very universally used versatile vegetable. They are the second most important vegetable in the world after tomatoes and come in colours white, brown and red. They are reputed to have originated in Central Asia, in Iran and Pakistan with the Greeks and Romans bringing them to Europe whence they spread to other countries as plants growing in the wild initially before being cultivated for domestic consumption. The only thing I don’t like about the onion is that it can cause discomfort to the eyes while peeling it due to the release of sulphur compounds. I peel them under cold water which alleviates the problem.
To balance that eye discomfort the onion is full of nutrients including vitamins B and C, and fibre. They are also reputed to have potential health benefits such as anti-inflammatory and heart protection properties.
We cook many hot dishes and the first thing we do is to sauté the chopped onions. I just love the smell and sizzle when they hit the frying pan or saucepan. I like being involved in the prepping of these dishes by chopping onions, peeling and chopping carrots, washing and chopping celery etc but it is my wife who does the fine cooking, and she often reminds me that I will never qualify for master chef. But sure, God loves a trier, and every kitchen needs a good commis chef, and I have no ambitions to enter any master chef competitions
There are cousins in the Allium family that we also prepare at the start of prepping dishes. We grate the garlic for the summer marinades, chop the scallions or chives for the salads or chop the leeks for those yummy fish pies.
In late summer people peel onions and add vinegar to pickle their supply of onions in jars for the year. I just love pickled onions which contain high amounts of good probiotics and digestion enzymes.
Then we come to the piece de resistance with the steak and onions and chunky chips. How could rural or urban Ireland survive without that special steak /onion smell wafting across our rustic environment at dinner time. I get hungry thinking about a well-done juicy fillet steak and fried onions with added pepper sauce or that special barbecue smell of steak and beef burgers being cooked and wafting across and pervading the summer air.
I am also partial to Indian food, and I admire the way their cooks slice the big white onions they use in making Chicken Shashlik and other sizzling dishes. When they bring that food across the floor from the kitchen I am salivating immediately with the sizzling sound and aroma. I love the rich taste the sizzling onion gives their food.
At home I have been known to make a gourmet omelette and one of the key ingredients in my recipe is the quality of the finely chopped scallions. They can determine the flavour of the omelette aided by using some garlic and herb, organic eggs, tomatoes and all topped with cubes of feta cheese and left under a moderate grill for a few minutes. Every year I buy a packet of spring onion seeds and sow them on a phased basis in a big garden pot, and this supplies our organic scallion needs for the season.I have now purchased my White Lisbon seeds for the season and they are so easy to grow. They are so tasty when served up in a summer salad sprinkled with a spoonful of good quality 100% Koroneiki extra virgin olive oil from the Peloponnese Region of Greece and supplied by John Doyle, My Select Grocer, Gorey.
When I was growing up in Tralee a neighbouring farmer, Dan Bowler, grew a huge field of white onions, and we got some summer work bending them over and topping them. Further back in the Maharees, in West Kerry farmers grew a lot of onions because the sandy soil was ideal for their cultivation. At home we grew onion sets, scallions, spring onions and shallots. We were all self-sufficient in onions We hung bunches of them in the shed for winter supplies. Nowadays when I browse the shop shelves, I will find most of our onions are from Spain or France.
I have been eating onions all my life, but it wasn’t until this week I realised what a variety of names they have. My wife was browsing in Springmount Garden Centre Shop, having had our weekly coffee visit to their cosy Greenhouse Cafe.I strayed off in search of my annual packet of spring onions. It was then I woke up to onion names and I discovered a huge variety of them in the display area.
There was a lovely French variety named Pink Panther. The name conjures up images of the bungling Inspector Clouseau and of course in more recent times the symbol used by many cancer awareness groups.
Its next door named was called Electric. I’m sure that’s a nice current variety.
My palate was really aroused when I saw the next variety entitled Golden Gourmet while sitting beside it was a solar variety called Red Sun. They were varieties to add a bit of zest to the salad at summer barbecue times.
I cast my eye further around and my gaze fixed on a strong muscular variety called Hercules while next in line and keeping a watchful eye was Centurion. There was the fantastically named Stuttgarter Giant and in the same section was a slippier variety named French Banana.
You could also try Hermine, Langors, Mikor French, Red Barons, Sturon onion sets or the Topadrome garlic.
I could go on name dropping varieties of onions, but I think I have sautéed enough of them for the moment.
Next time you are shopping for onions make sure you ask for a named variety and confound and confuse the shopkeeper with your knowledge of the onion world.
You could honestly say that my visit to Springmount Garden Centre, on the Ballycanew Road, was a real know your onions session.
I finish with a quote from Carl Sandburg, [ 1878- 1967] American poet, biographer journalist and editor. He won the Pulitzer Prize twice for his poetry and once for his biography of Abraham Lincoln He compares life to an onion ‘Life is like an onion, you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.
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