Sour Potatoes

I do not know what I have been waiting for, maybe it was fear, or perhaps even confusion. I mean, are they garnish? Are they food? Are they meant to be planted in the garden? For years I have admired those “cute baby onions” from a distance, but only from the safety of the far end of the produce aisle where foods of my own caliber (the broccoli, the potato, and, yes, even the regular onion) dwell and warn me, as all good friends do, not to get above myself thinking I belong in that world. That world where fingerling potatoes and radicchio and mangoes belong. That world which seems meant only for friends dubbed, amazing cooks or Williams Sonoma employees or Mario Batali.

Well, last week, I had finally had enough. Those pearl onions, the vegetal version of the “cool girls” table and their reign of tyranny was going to end…now! I grabbed two bags, so smug in their purple mesh, and headed to the checkout. The girl behind the counter smiled at me as she rang them up, “What are you gonna do with these?” she asked. I peered at her from behind the People I was perusing, like so many evil masterminds before me, my passion had got the better of me. I had no idea what I was going to do with them. Her sweet smile quickly turned into a condescending smirk. She had seen the likes of me before. I could almost see the “Better men than you have tried and failed” in her eyes. For a moment my confidence wavered but I would not be deterred by a four-teen year old girl with an armful of Sillybanz, no, those onions were going down…

Oh, they still tried to intimidate, even from the counter, but they were no match for my skillet.

Tossing them in a little olive oil and butter quieted them down and the results were just as I had imagined sweet and caramelized and lightly onion-y, absolutely delicious, sort of the culinary equivalent of going to the prom with the onion’s boyfriend…Awesome.

If you would also like to give those mini onions what for here is the recipe that I used. They can also be a bit stubborn to peel, for a fast and easy way to remove the skin check this out.