GOUDA ONION DIP

Wow! This onion dip is not your typical out of the package dip. Instead, you pretty it up with a scooped-out ball of Gouda cheese. No kidding! Because it's so beautifully self-contained, it travels well when you want to take this as an appetizer to a party. Not only that, but your friends will be bowled over by the presentation and the great flavor. There will be no leftovers!

Photo by whitneyinchicago

What you'll need:

- one 10-oz ball of imported Gouda cheese

- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter

-1 small yellow onion (finely chopped)

- 4 oz Roquefort cheese (crumbled)

- 4 oz sharp cheddar cheese (finely grated)

- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

- 3 drops of hot pepper sauce

- 1 tsp whole-grain mustard

- 4 Tbsp dark beer or stout

With a sharp knife, cut the top to make a lid from the Goulda cheese ball, about 1 inch thick. Save the lid. Hollow out the cheese without cutting through the wall of the ball. The wall should be as thin as you can make it on all sides. Take the reserved Gouda cheese and grate it and set aside.

In a small skillet, heat 2 Tbsp of the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until it reaches a golden brown color. This usually takes about 7 to 10 minutes. Stir often. Remove the onion from the skillet and set aside to cool.

Combine the Gouda, Roquefort, and Cheddar cheeses in a food processor, along with the remaining butter, the onions and the Worcestershire, mustard, and hot pepper sauce. Process the mixture until smooth. Scrape the sides occasionally. Pour in the beer and continue to process until smooth and creamy.

Next, fill the hollowed out Gouda ball with the mixture. You'll probably have more mixture than will fit in the ball. Place the lid on the ball of cheese and put the remaining dip into a bowl. Cover both with plastic wrap and refrigerate before serving.

One nice aspect of making this dip is that if you make it a day ahead, it actually enhances the flavor. When you serve the dip, bring out the Gouda ball in time to reach room temperature. You can use the additional dip to refill the cheese ball.

This recipe makes approximately 2 cups. You must refrigerate it at least 4 hours before serving.

Enjoy with Homemade Potato Chips, Bagel Chips and Pita Chips.

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Sweet Vidalia® Onions Take on Today's Cooks' Need for Speed.

Sweet Vidalia Onion Souce - Photo: Flickr

Convenience is a key concern for today's time-pressed cooks. Less than 30 minutes preparation time, recipes with less than seven ingredients and quick-and-easy cleanup are three important issues for home cooks. 

Saturday Night Vidalia® Onions from Paula Deen-cookbook author, chef/ proprietor of The Lady and Sons restaurant in Savannah, Ga., and host of Food Network's "Paula's Home Cooking"-is a recipe that satisfies today's cooks' need for speed. 

As Paula says, "If your Southern food is authentic, it's not fussy! It doesn't require a sophisticated palate. The ingredients are distinctly Southern and homegrown." That's just what Paula's recipe for Saturday Night Vidalia® Onions is, too. Real. Simple. Homegrown in Georgia. This recipe can be prepared in the oven or outside over hot coals. Either way, it's delightful, just like its creator. 

More easy recipes featuring Vidalia Onions may be viewed and printed by logging on to www.vidaliaonion.org. Paula Deen's latest cookbook is "Paula Deen's Kitchen Classics".

Paula Deen's Saturday Night Vidalia® Onions

1 large Vidalia® Onion per person
1 beef bouillon cube per onion
1 tablespoon butter per onion
Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Trim a slice from the top of each onion, and peel the onion without cutting off the root end. With a potato peeler, cut a small cone-shaped section from the center of the onion. Cut the onion into quarters from the top down, stopping within a half-inch of the root end. Place a bouillon cube in the center, slip slivers of butter in between the sections, and sprinkle with pepper. Wrap each onion in a double thickness of heavy-duty foil and bake in preheated oven for about 45 minutes. Or, prepare a fire in a charcoal grill and place the foil-wrapped onions directly onto the hot coals and cook for 45 minutes, turning every so often. Serve in individual bowls because they produce a lot of broth, which tastes like French Onion Soup! Serves one person per onion.

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All About Italy's Spicy Marinara Sauce

Marinara Sauce - Photo: Pixabay

Marinara sauce is a popular Italian red sauce. This meatless sauce can be easily and quickly made from tomatoes, onions and herbs. You might find this sauce a little spicier than other red tomato sauces. This is because it has large amounts of garlic, oregano, basil, and even chilli pepper. Its simplicity and easy-to-make feature allow it to be used in many great Italian dishes.

Besides its traditional use of highlighting the mild taste of pasta such as linguini or ziti, marinara is also a popular dipping sauce for finger foods like fried mozzarella cheese sticks and calzones. This sauce can be used by you to add a little zest to meat dishes such as chicken, veal Parmigiano, pork steaks, and grilled seafood. You can also use it to replace mustard or mayonnaise in a burger or a chicken filet sandwich and perhaps relish the food more.

Despite being easy to make, there are currently hundreds of types of marinara in the market. The popularity of the sauce may be due to recent research, which revealed that cooked tomatoes are rich in lycopene, an antioxidant that may help reduce the risk of certain types of cancer.

Origins of Marinara Sauce

Marinara is derived from the Italian word Marinaro meaning “of the sea” and marinara sauce loosely translates into “the sauce of the sailors”. It originated with sailors in Naples in the 16th century, after the introduction of tomato by the Spaniards. In those days of no refrigeration, it was in great demand among the cooks on the ships for two reasons. Firstly, because the absence of meat and high acid content of the tomatoes would not spoil the sauce, and secondly because it was easy to prepare.

Preparation of marinara sauce

Ingredients

6 pounds ripe Italian-type tomatoes

1 cup very finely minced onion

1/2 cup very finely minced celery

1 cup very finely minced carrots

1/2 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon sugar

Seasonings - Added according to taste

Ground white pepper

Ground coriander

Dried marjoram

Dried basil

Dried oregano

Salt

Drop tomatoes into boiling water, a few at a time. Let the water return to a boil, then remove the tomatoes and drain. Peel and chop.

Cook the onion, celery, and carrots in the olive oil, in a large covered saucepan, over medium-low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring a few times. Uncover and stir, over the heat, for 5 to 10 minutes more, or until the vegetables are very soft and light gold.

Add the tomatoes, sugar and pepper and simmer gently, covered, for 15 minutes.

Puree the sauce through the medium disc of a food mill. Add the optional seasoning and cook at a bare simmer until the desired consistency is reached, about 20 minutes, stirring often. Add salt to taste. You can add a little hot sauce to give it a kick as well.

If you prefer a smooth sauce, work the sauce through the fine disc of a food mill.

Cool the marinara and refrigerate it. It will keep, refrigerated, for about a week, or for several months if frozen.

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Onions, Fabulous, Superb Perfection

Red Onions - Photo: Pexels

Onions are absolutely one of the most delicious and flexible commodities you use in the kitchen. From savory steaming soups to satisfying homemade salsa, onions play an important part in our daily cooking.

Flavorful appetizers from onion dips to salad dressing, main course casseroles, even the onion focaccia bread accompaniment for dinner.

Buying onions is a simple task. Look for dry, papery skins with no soft spots. You should also notice the absence of any strong odor. A good dry onion will have very little to no smell to it at all. If it has a strong onion odor the onion has already begun to turn bad.

Varieties of onion include Vidalia, Texas 1015, Red, Green, the Walla Walla from Washington and Maui from Hawaii. Sweet onions such as Vidalia and Walla Walla are mellow enough to eat raw, but they are excellent "baked" on the grill and served with grilled steaks or burgers. Try them in the oven too.

Caramelizing onions during cooking will give a rich sweetness to recipes, enhancing kitchen aromas and have everyone asking, “What’s for dinner?” Followed shortly by “fabulous, superb and perfection.”

Capt’n Salsa has an almost comical way of storing onions, but it really works.

Grab an old pair of your wife’s pantyhose, cut off the legs. Now you simply drop an onion down into the leg of the hose and tie a knot directly above the onion. Repeat this process until each onion is secured and hang the hose in a cool dry, well-ventilated space, out of direct sunlight.

To remove the onion, simply cut the hose with a pair of scissors right below the knot and the onion easily falls out. You should be able to keep your onions for about three months.

Kosher salt is one of the best things to use to remove the smell of the onion from your hands. Wash your hands using a little dishwashing soap, water and about a teaspoon full of salt. Any salt will do, I just like the coarse texture of the kosher salt. Rinse your hands and repeat if necessary. 

Tears when you chop those onions?

How do you get rid of the tears? Here are a few simple suggestions to “ease your pain.”

You can place the onion in the refrigerator for about thirty minutes prior to chopping or if you are in a hurry toss them in the freezer for about four to five minutes. The cold will tone down the sulfur compound in the juice of the onion. In addition be sure to use the sharpest knife possible to expedite your chopping chores.

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