Cooking by Taste

I am very proud of myself. As I mentioned last week, I just ran out of my new favorite ingredient: onion confit from the Monoprix. BUT - I managed to work up my nerve on Friday and I made some of my own. Without a real recipe (I'd found one online, but could tell it wasn't quite right). I had a list of the ingredients from the top of my last bottle I brought back from Paris, and about 15 minutes to kill.

It was so easy and it turned out absolutely perfectly! Naturally, I didn't measure ingredients (or take pictures) as I cooked it, but here's an approximation:

Ingredients:
2 med/large Vidalia onions, peeled and cut into medium chunks
3 medium pats of butter (maybe a little more than 1 tbs. total)
olive oil
salt & pepper
approx. 1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
approx. 3 tbs. sugar
approx. 1/3 c. dry white wine

I put one pat of butter in a medium/hot pan, along with enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan, then put the onions on top. Mixed it all up, so the onions were coated, and let everything cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions were softish and starting to brown - about 7 minutes.

Once the onions were somewhat soft, I added the balsamic vinegar and sugar. I let that simmer down for another few minutes, until it had reduced nearly halfway (I also made sure I stirred the sugar in well.

Once the balsamic reduced a bit, I added the wine (I used vermouth) and let that reduce for another few minutes - until the whole concotion is not too liquidy and the onions are very clear and soft. At the very end, I stirred in the last 2 pats of butter, just to add a little creamy flavor. Perfect!

This makes about 2 cups of confit. On Friday night, I added it to sauteed potatoes, just as I was taking the potatoes off the stove. I saved about half of it and today, I had some on a bagel with melted mozzarella. So good! Sweet and oniony...and I made it without a recipe!

(I know one day that won't seem like such an amazing feat to me...but trust me, right now it is an amazing feat.)