Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Onions, Fried. — Peel and slice them ; cook fifteen minutes in boiling water ; then turn them on a clean cloth to drain. Put a few of the onions in a frying-basket and dip them in smoking hot fat, and brown. Drain on brown paper and dust with salt and pepper. Serve with liver and bacon. Onions, Sliced and Fried. — Onions cut into thin slices, fried in a little hot butter until they are browned without being burned, then mixed with flour, and afterwards pressed through a fine sieve, are excellent for flavoring and coloring brown soups and sauces. Onions, Stewed. — Peel and trim half a dozen Spanish onions of medium size, but be careful not to cut the tops too short, or the bulb will fall to pieces while stewing. Blanch them in boiling water for a minute or two, then drain them, and put them side by side in a saucepan sufficiently large to hold them all in one layer. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over them, and place upon each onion Yz oz. of butter, mixed smoothly with half a teaspoonful of powdered sugar. Place them over a gentle fire, and let them remain until lightly browned, then cover with good brown gravy, and simmer them until tender. Serve as hot as possible on toast, with the gravy poured round them. If liked, the gravy may be flavored with tomato-sauce, or with a finely minced gherkin and a glass of claret. Time to stew the onions, about an hour and a half. Onions, Stuffed. — The Spanish or large-sized onions are best. Peel the onions, and from the stalk end take out the centre of the onion. Cook ten minutes in salted water. Then lay the onions, opening down, upon a clean cloth to absorb the water. Make a stuffing of two parts of chopped chicken or ham to one of bread-crumbs. Chop fine the onion hearts that have been removed and add to them the other stuffing, also one table-spoonful of melted butter. Salt and pepper to taste. Moisten with a little chicken stock. Fill the onions with this mixture and place them in a baking-pan containing an inch depth of water. Sprinkle the Parsley, Fried Peppers, Baked onions with crumbs, cover the pan, and bake in a hot oven an hour, or until the onions are tender. Remove the cover long enough to brown the onions lightly before they are taken from the oven. Another way : — Prepare three or four large Spanish onions as in the last recipe. Scoop out the centres, making a hole fully an inch and a half across. Put in each one a mutton kidney, and place the onions side by side in a saucepan. Sprinkle a little salt and cayenne over them, and pour upon them half a pint of good brown gravy. Place the pan over a gentle fire, and let it remain until the onions are quite tender. Serve as hot as possible. Time to simmer the onions, two and a half to three hours. Parsley, Fried. — Wash and dry well a few branches of fresh parsley with long stems ; put them in the frying-basket and plunge the basket in plenty of very hot fat so as to cover the parsley. Fry one minute only. Lift up the basket, remove the parsley with the skimmer, sprinkle a few grains of salt over it; serve on the platter around the fish. The taste of fried parsley with fried fish is greatly appreciated.