A little while ago, some work colleagues and I ended up talking about food (again), and a question was posed to me. "So, what's your favourite ingredient?". Luckily for me, I have been thinking about this on and off over the years, so after not much consideration, I answered that it was onions. This decision was quite easy. To me, onions are like a multi-tool you have in the toolbox under the stairs or teabags in the cupboard. They're always there, always ready for action and always ready to get on with the job. I’d even go as far to say that almost every kitchen in the land, professional or otherwise, will have at least one and probably many more, waiting to be added to whatever culinary masterpiece is next planned. This was a simple choice to make, and really, there was only one other contender which I feel, needs a mention.
Pipped at the post were potatoes. And for me, potatoes deserve a great deal of respect. Just look at the dish produced on this year’s Great British Menu by Mark Abbot. This simple ingredient was made glamorous and elevated to a new place. It says a lot about this undoubtedly talented cook but a great deal more about his chosen ingredient. Potatoes are similar in stature to onions from an ingredient perspective, in that they are everywhere and are indeed kitchen royalty. But the onion gets the winning vote this time for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you don't have to cook them to eat them. Pull one out of the ground, clean it up a little and consume as is, straight into a cheese sandwich. Not so with Mr Potato. Secondly, when an onion is cooked, with a little knowledge and rudimentary skills, it can be utterly transformed into something so different to its original form and flavour, that it’s almost magical. Its taste can be developed so far from what was pulled out of the ground that it is astounding. This I feel, is not the case with the potato, which, yes, can be transformed, but not to the same degree and with such contrast. The onion, like the potato comes in many different varieties with each being favoured for different tasks over their peers. And I don’t want to devalue the potato or diminish its importance as an ingredient, but the onion wins the race this time.
Now that's out of the way, lets concentrate on onions. Onions are cheap. Some varieties are cheaper than others but overall you get a lot of onions for a little bit of money. It's difficult to imagine how anyone makes any money out of growing and selling them. They go through a whole process from sowing in the field, right through to delivering to the supermarket. Everyone gets their cut from them and the cycle repeats. Anyway, the fact that they are cheap means that they are popular and because of this, they play a huge role in many dishes and cuisines from around the world. At least on the surface this is how it might appear. Cheap = Popular. But clearly, there are other contributing factors added into the mix, such as availability, storage and how lucky we are in the UK that our climate is perfect for growing onions. Because of this, we produce masses of them and we grow many different varieties.
The main deciding factor in my decision is the onions versatility. And this goes for all onions or at least all the onions I have had the pleasure of cooking with and eating. The variety is astounding. Shallots, red ones, white ones, brown ones and green ones which all have their own varieties. I’m sure I have only used a small percentage of what is out there and occasionally discover a type I have never used before. The beauty with the world of onions is that I know that they are all similar enough to behave in the same way when I use them. On the surface, it is easy to underestimate and dismiss the role that onions play in the varied cuisines of the world, but look at the wide variety of dishes in which they are used. Any country you choose, onions of one variety or another are likely to be present in the ingredients list somewhere along the line. Just think about it, soups, stews, curries, salads, condiments, stocks and sauces all often start with onions of one variety or another.
In many cases the onions play a foundation role, adding depth to the flavour and texture of savoury dishes but not actually playing a starring role. This is real character. They could be left out, if they are unavailable for some bizarre reason, but it's far, far better with them present. Onions add their own inimitable tastes and sweetness, bolstering other flavours in a huge amount of our favourite worldwide dishes. Have you ever seen a chef making a stock without the addition of onions? No, me neither.
The place where onions really get the opportunity to shine, are in the dishes where they play the starring role. Now, lots of ingredients can be outstanding when they are the focus in the dish, but the onion can be used in such a variety of different types of foods that it is incomparable. And there is no point giving you a list here either, just to demonstrate the point I'm trying to make. That would be a worthless exercise, as a brief spell with your chosen search engine can yield all you need to know. But let's look briefly at a couple of my favourite episodes of the onion show.
French onion soup and onion pie. These two dishes are perfect examples of transformation. Like the caterpillar changing into the beautiful butterfly. When onions come together with their best friends, heat, time and butter, the change is just divine and improves further when these friends are added in greater quantities. These two dishes, when done well, become greater than the sum of their parts. The other ingredients play supporting cast roles and there is no doubt that it would not be the same without them. But it's all about the onions. Soft, sweet, delicate and unctuous onions make for excellent eating and they have done for many decades. The taste is remarkable with satisfying depth and appeal to even the most carnivorous of diners. Here are examples of less is more with ingredients. It's not complicated and doesn't need to be because the more you add to the ingredients list, the more you take away from the onions and what’s the point of that?
The flip side to this coin is the onion’s distinct and pungent flavour. When left unchanged, this can be a true delight. Look at the cheese and onion sandwich, where the onion is the perfect foil for the cheese. The contrast is perfect. And so it is, with hundreds of other examples where the onion is employed. The strength and flavour profiles change with each variety, and as mentioned before, lend themselves to different tasks in the kitchen. The versatility is accentuated the more you think about it. If you add preservation to the options list of what to do with onions, you start to get a better idea of the importance of this culinary heavyweight in the world of food
Finally, the health benefits of onions and indeed the wider allium family, have been well known for many years. Links to reduced cancer incidence, improved cardio vascular health and lowering blood cholesterol levels are just a few of the potential health benefits of onions. They’re a nutritional masterpiece and all round good guy. So, it's a win-win situation with these fantastic little, and sometimes large bulbs. When eaten raw, the health benefits are far greater and fortunately for us, we have almost unlimited access to such a multi-purpose ingredient.
So there.
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