Caramelized Onion Confit

I wasn’t sure if I should make this recipe or not. I wasn’t sure what I could do with caramelized onion confit, wasn’t sure why anyone would need it. It’s not really a meal or a side dish — it’s closest to an appetizer, but only if you pile the onions on top of a toasted baguette (ideally with sharp crumbly blue cheese) and since I’m detoxing, I couldn’t do that.

But I had a few onions lying around that had seen better days, and I do love soft sweet onions, so I made them.

And then I couldn’t stop eating them. On top of steak, on top of green beans, straight out of the bowl with a fork.

Even more than the onions, the star of this recipe is the leftover caramelized onion oil, which is sweet and nutty and savory and guys, I would bathe in this oil if I could. I would dab some behind my ears and on my wrists, so I could smell like caramelized onion for the rest of my days. (Am I getting weird again?)

I’ve been using the oil to saute any and all vegetables that enter my kitchen, and tossing my grain salads with it, and when I finally broke and got a baguette for some dinner delicious (to come soon!), the oil was SO GOOD with baguette that I almost ate an entire baguette by myself.

So the moral of this story is, if you don’t think you have any room in your life for caramelized onion confit, you’re wrong. Make this today, make this tomorrow, make this until the end of days. It will make everything better.

Caramelized Onion Confit

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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3 large onions, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
• hefty pinch of coarse salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 teaspoon sugar

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Instructions

1. In a large pot or high-walled saute pan, heat the oil on medium-low heat.
2. Add the onions, salt, pepper and sugar, and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions have softened.
3. Lower the heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions have caramelized into a deep brown color and are soft and sweet, about 45 minutes.

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