onion dinner party for 6 friends

25lbs. of onions becomes: french onion focaccia, scallion little gem salad, caramelized onion stuffed onion petals, allium-tinted truffles

For me, early spring in New York rivals the joy of holiday time. This time of year brings me back to when I first moved to New York three years ago in the same season. I was on my own for the first time. Every waking hour filled with excitement, fear, cluelessness, exhilaration. Getting adjusted to New York was actually sort of traumatic. I think it’s a bit of a sensory overload. Your brain has to get adjusted to the heavy metal band that plays in your neighborhood park.

So my memory is acutely aware as to how I felt during the time I moved. When the air just starts to warm, when wintry cold turns to spring chill, that sensation of excitement and of a fresh beginning comes racing back to me. I can feel those few mornings I walked to the office of the first time, that first time I went to the farmers market to buy broccoli rabe, the first time I went to grab dinner with my college friends I hadn’t seen in years. All during those cold spring days. I guess fitting for spring: Now my brain is hardwired to feel that rebirth, too.

Enough romanticism and nostalgia for this newsletter — let’s turn our attention to onions.

Coming off of the popularity of the sumo citrus dinner, I knew I wanted do a part 2 video (or even a longer, continued video series) with another fruit or vegetable. I’ve always been a produce-obsessed, seasonality-obsessed person and cook. The joy of seeing the first farmers market asparagus, ramps, strawberries, concord grapes, figs, and apples are, and I’m being completely serious, some of my happiest moments of my entire year.

The opportunity to conceptualize a whole dinner meal based around a singular produce item is really energizing. Onions are just slightly different than sumo citrus, though. For one, there are a lot of varieties of onion. Where to draw the line? Is shallot an onion? Leeks? I decided the only true onions for this menu were: red, yellow, white, sweet, and green. Secondly, dessert posed a bit of a challenge. To onion dessert or not to onion dessert? It took me a while to come up with the whole menu, but I landed on:

the menu:

french onion focaccia

caramelized onion stuffed onion petals

scallion & little gem salad with vinaigrette

allium-tinted chocolate truffles

You might be realizing that I sort of cheated out on the dessert issue. While the thought of adding caramelized onions to brownies or cake did cross my mind, I truthfully did not want to eat that. But upon looking at red, yellow, and white onions at the grocery store, I realized I could easily incorporate those same colors into a cute array of bite-sized chocolate truffles. Achieving the same visual impact of ONION with none of the bite.

The focaccia and stuffed onion petals both rely on my favorite way to cook onions: slowly caramelized until sweet, savory, and deeply browned. The focaccia has caramelized onions laden on top. The stuffed onions have a good amount of caramelized onions mixed into the filling.

Here’s a tip about making caramelized onions that my aunt told me the other day: whenever you go through the hassle of making them, make a larger pot than you need and just freeze the extra. It takes the same amount of time to caramelize 4 onions vs 12 onions. But making several smaller batches is frankly just a waste of our time. So make one big ole pot, and freeze the extra onions in pint containers.

Since the focaccia and stuffed onions are quite savory and have longer cook times, I knew I needed to highlight the lighter green onion in the meal, too. I thought of the scallion salads I’ve received (you typically don’t order them. they just sort of give it to you) at Korean restaurants that come as a banchan. I thought to take that preparation but instead of a Korean dressing, to make a whole grain mustard vinaigrette with aged balsamic, lemon juice, and lots of olive oil. I like to supplement the salad with little gem lettuces, too, that way there’s a mix of textures. You might think it’s a lot of onions. It is. But the salad almost acts as a springy, palate cleanser. Also after washing the scallions in ice water, they lose a good deal of their raw, bite.

Next up, I already know I’m doing asparagus. I have a whole menu set in place. It’s gonna feature a clay plant pot if that excites you….

With lots of layers,

Ryan

recipes

[note: paid subscribers will have access to all 5 recipes below. Per the request of a subscriber, I’ve started including printable PDF documents of all the recipes for easier reading and usage.]