This past week was SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!
Also known as the busiest time of the year to write about all the many (so many—nay too many) commercials. It’s an event that takes weeks (months?) to gear up for, culminating in more than 120 articles published on JUST the day of the Super Bowl. (Dove and Budweiser’s classic ads were faves).
So, I needed to make something for our “War Room” on Sunday that would accomplish two things:
Fool my colleagues into thinking I have good taste.
Make something that requires zero brain power.
Enter French onion dip. Fancy enough to sound bougie but also squarely fits into the universal understanding of “dips are a food group” during the Super Bowl.
Some people live or die by Lipton’s onion powder for this sole occasion. I wanted the real deal and found Dan Pelosi’s recent recipe for NYT Cooking instead.
Onions are a magical allium
French onion dip is not a snack for the faint of heart. It requires both an ungodly amount of attention and a rigorous arm workout.
Alas, there is only one real step: Sautéing four cups of onions (about 2 1/2 onions) over a low to medium stove for a solid 45 minutes.
There is also the added challenge that my tiny Brooklyn stove only has one temperature: EXTREMELY HOT. The goal to caramelize the onions until they’re a deep brown and stick together to form almost a paste is basically a game of tetris—constantly working the onions around a scalding burner to avoid burning them.
I set a timer, put on a podcast (highly recommend Taste’s podcast in general but this episode with Abi Balingit was specifically lovely) and started the long process of stirring these onions into a new life.
For the next 45 minutes, I didn’t have a single thought. No nagging reminders to do that one thing. No need to absorb any information. My mind quite literally went blank and my single focus in life was moving around the little suckers in a pan. Time became a loose concept. It was blissful, and I want it back.
For a while, cooking onions with this undivided attention feels fussy and like you’re taking care of a small child. But then something magical happens about 20 minutes in: Their color changes, and they start releasing buckets of water, BUT YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHERE IT IS COMING FROM. I am not a food scientist but … how?!?!
Slowly, onions become shape-shifters and start turning a darker color, texture, and taste. They turn from a bitter, sharp flavor to sweet and nutty. And yet the onions continue having a mind of their own AND KEEP RELEASING WATER.
Like I’m talking I was 45 minutes into this mindless task over way too high of a heat, and those guys were STILL full of water?!?
At the end, I had a lump of caramelized, sweet onions. In the last couple of minutes, I stirred in a tiny amount of red vinegar.
After letting the onions cool in a bowl, I mixed in sour cream, Worcestershire sauce (unexpected but low-key a crucial ingredient), onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne powder, a good pinch of salt, and a big grind of pepper.
I (surprise!) thrive on being extra and therefore had to serve it in this cutie casserole dish (called Little Hottie!!) with chives and more pepper. I served it with Ruffles because Ruffles rank high on the short list of acceptable chips to serve at parties for dipping.
She was a hit with my colleagues and gone by the end of the night! Unfortunately no leftovers this week but still worth it.
My running club celebrated Lunar New Year with a run that ended with dim sum at a vegetarian restaurant in Chinatown.
Everything was delicious, but the sweet sticky sesame balls with red bean paste were my favorite. We also got a visit from the lion dancers.
This big story in the New York Times about the kitchens at Rikers Island—New York City’s largest jail located on an island in the East River—was fascinating. The food program at Rikers is about to undergo a big change with more plant-based dishes.
For a starting salary of $39,000, cooks work eight-hour shifts behind locked doors.
The best sweatshirt I’ve ever owned. Both because I’m proudly a lifelong shrimp enthusiast (seriously—my favorite food has been shrimp cocktail since I was a kid) and because it makes New York’s constant snowstorms this winter so much cozier.
That’s all for this week—see you next week!
I would never have thought to add Worcestershire sauce—yum!! And next time I see you I’ll have to make you my shrimp dip (cut-up tiny shrimp, cocktail sauce, cream cheese, onion powder and garlic powder)!!!