Friday, September 1, 2023

Stuffed Onions Gone Wrong

 One of the unofficial dishes of Piedmonte Italy is  stuffed onions,  every family has a recipe for cipolli or oignon ripienne , varying ingredients and spices. Are they hard to replicate ? yes and no.

I've been wanting to make these bt to be honest didn't have the recipe (I do now) I also wanted to skip the process of placing them in the oven. What I didn;t know was that theyhad to be boiled in a mix of vinegar water and salt for half an hour. I did choose the right onions though.

These were really perfect white onions bought form my local Acme. I followed air fryer fried onion recipes (big mistake)  which requires them with cut ends and a cored out middle. The two outer layers had to be removed as well.
This was impossible to do and there was also left over chopped onion which was cooked with extra Gardein meatballs 



I used only four of these as a filling.

The onions required a lot more coring to fit th e meat balls. Then it was onto putting them in the air fryer. I followed various  recipes for cooking times. and came up with eight minutes at 400 degrees Farenheit for th e first fry then another eight minutes at 370 degrees Farenheit for the second

  Thisis after the first cook.

                                                              Then the second.
As far as the flavor, the onion over powered them and the interior layers were not as cooked as I would have liked them .I prefered wihat I made with the extra meatballs and onions corings.

I just used two tablespoons of Melt plant butter and olive oil and sauteed and steamed them until the onions bits became translucent.
These were better than the stuffed onions
 These turned out perfect and I plan on makng these again with the addtion of chopped green peppers and tomatoes.

The next stuffed onion recipe will be the true Piedmonntese one. The air fryer ones just did  not come out right. I realzie classic recipes need classic cooking in order to be delicious.