Posted by johngl
Charlie Hills, renowned author of Why Your Last Diet Failed You and fellow food blogger on the recently-launched Lord of the Onion Rings demonstrates the proper way to make…Onion Rings (what else!).
First, you’ll need the ingredients:
A few cleaned onions, some corn starch, salt, piquin powder, and a pan of cold water will get you started.
One of these might help (but isn’t absolutely necessary):
Yes, I know, this seems to be a bit of an extravagance for the home kitchen, but it makes quick work of slicing meats, breads, and tear-free onion rings! Some diligent knife work will do just fine.
Slice up some onions…
…and toss them into the pan of cold water
Why the soak in the water?
This gives you two advantages: the onions won’t dry out if you wish to do the prep-work in advance of a party and it helps remove a lot of the sulfur compounds that cause that nasty eye-burning sensation.
When you are ready to do the final bit of prep, spin the onion rings dry in your salad spinner.
Now, just toss them into a dry bowl and coat with about a heaping tablespoon of corn starch, some piquin powder, and a dash of salt and black pepper.
But, but, that isn’t very much of a coating…
Yes, and that is exactly the point. There is nothing worse than biting into an onion ring only to have this limp noodle of onion pull right out of the inside of a bunch of cooked batter. I hate that. This light coating adds a little crunch without overpowering the onion. And the onions get nicely caramelized rather than steamed inside a sheath of batter.
Into the basket they go:
Make sure your oil is hot.
Since it was already over a hundred degrees outside, we figured it was better to do these out on the patio kitchen. I broke out the wok and heated some canola oil up to about 390°F. There is another advantage to using these burners: more power! Each burner is 36,000 BTU of jet-engine sounding raw heat. Firing these up always gives me a rush.
Drop the basket into the hot oil and in a just a couple of minutes, they are ready to pull.
Immediately add a dash of salt to the rings and they are ready to eat!
These are so good that the first basket rarely makes it into the house.
Naturally, one onion won’t get you very far under these conditions. For parties, we’ll do as many as five pounds of onions and there are never any left-overs. It looks like a huge pile of raw rings, but they shrink a lot when they cook.
Smell good, don’t they?
If you would like to see more of Charlie…
or enjoy his free-flowing, humorous, and informative writing style, I highly recommend visiting Back to the Fridge.
[...] Of course, no cheeseburger is complete without the proper accoutrements. It’s a flip of the coin whether I prefer fries or onion rings on any given day. Both have their advantages and neither has a disadvantage that I’ve ever yet come across. There’s only one way to fix the fries, and I call that thin or thick or crinkled or waffled or curly. They must be salted or seasoned. They must be hot. Very hot. I’m not sure of the exact temperature, but when you make the hooh-ho-haa-haa-haa-hooo-hooh sound, you know you’re there. I’m a bit pickier about my onion rings, though. I prefer the stringy kind and the less batter the better. In fact, “none at all” is the right amount for me. To see where I’m coming from, read John’s excellent post on the topic. [...]
Hey there!
Even confirmed onion haters like these o-rings. In fact, one [onion hater] was at this particular party. These thin cut o-rings cook up so crispy, they are just sweet-tasting crunchy things and not really oniony at all.
As for Charlie…he’s your brother. You tell me.
And why doesn’t he like roast beef? I served 13 lbs of this awesome roast ribeye and he ate burgers instead (not that they were bad). What did you guys do to the poor man?
Oh, nearly forgot about your question. I make piquin powder out of some so-called “bird-peppers” that grow all over the place here in Texas. Tiny little critters. Hotter than a two-dollar pistol. You can see pictures of them here. Substitute any kind of hot pepper you enjoy.
J
Awesome!
Hey John,
Sadly, of my twin sister, Charlie and me, I HATE onions. Although, these are skinny enough that I may try it. But what is piquin powder?
And why is Charlie wearing long sleeves when its 100 degrees out?!