Onions

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Tonight at Shoprite I saw "pink onions" for the first time.

 

[Darienne]

7 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

Description, please?

Of Basque Chicken.  I looked up a couple of recipes and onions, although present, did not seem to be in any way featured.  I hope the OP gets back to us.   I didn't get at the Onion Soup as of yet and could possibly use another recipe. 

Edited December 29, 2022 by Darienne (log)

[billyhill]

Basque chicken is chicken pieces seasoned and cooked with an absurd amount of onions that are allowed to reduce and caramelize in the oven. Recipe came a homey French cookbook by Loomis. I will post the recipe or send you a jpg. of it if you wish.

 

 

Edited December 29, 2022 by billyhill
Additions (log)

[billyhill]

Looking at the recipe, I am pretty sure our version is up onioned. 

[Anna N]

5 minutes ago, billyhill said:

Looking at the recipe, I am pretty sure our version is up onioned. 

Yes. As @Darienne noted, there are many recipes for Basque  chicken but none that call for large quantities of onion. Recipes do evolve in the home kitchen and we do tend to add more of the ingredients that we especially like but then we risk changing the very nature of the dish and distorting the flavours of the cuisine.  Basque cuisine has a very distinct flavour profile and onions do not come to mind as primary. Enjoy your “up onioned” chicken dish. 

[blue_dolphin]

9 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Tonight at Shoprite I saw "pink onions" for the first time.

 

 

I wonder if they were similar to Roscoff onions from Brittany.  I believe that name is appellation controlled but I'm sure similar onions are grown elsewhere. 

Yesterday, I bought some Bordier butter flavored with Roscoff onion, one of Bordier's seasonal winter flavors. 

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

wonder if they were similar to Roscoff onions from Brittany.

Or, perhaps these?

these.

 

Interesting what you find when you go looking. 😂

Edited December 29, 2022 by Anna N
To add another link to more pink onions (log)

[rotuts]

WoW !

 

the P.O.

 

looks to me

 

to be a variant 

 

w some Red in it

 

from an onion like this 

 

 

a brown skinned onion

 

Spanish ?

 

a bit of blush ?

[blue_dolphin]

7 minutes ago, rotuts said:

Spanish ?

The first link that @Anna N posted says:

Quote

Originating in the 1800s Coastal France and slowly working its way across Europe, this unique variety has been popular in France and Britain and is now making its way to the United States

 

So perhaps they are a descendant of the Brittany Roscoff that I mentioned.  Of course, I suppose the Spanish Armada could have made a port stop in Brittany and planted them centuries ago!

The Roscoffs have an interesting history with French Breton farmers or farm workers (onion Johnnys) selling those pink onions in England and Wales. 

[Anna N]

49 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

The first link that @Anna N posted says:

 

So perhaps they are a descendant of the Brittany Roscoff that I mentioned.  Of course, I suppose the Spanish Armada could have made a port stop in Brittany and planted them centuries ago!

The Roscoffs have an interesting history with French Breton farmers or farm workers (onion Johnnys) selling those pink onions in England and Wales. 

Thank you. Most fascinating story. Here is more. 
Roscoff onions have a wonderful pink hue (due to the seaweed-fed soil in which they grow) and a distinctive flavour: “They smell fruity, have a crisp texture and are very juicy with intense and complex aromas. They are sweet and slightly spicy and great for use in salads,” explains Natacha – as well as soup. “The onions are often plaited into a tress, in order of size. The largest, at the end, is referred to as penn kapiten – the Captain!” she adds. Every year, during the August harvest, the crowds come to honour these pink beauties at the Fête de l’Oignon de Roscoff.

[weinoo]

15 hours ago, Anna N said:

Roscoff onions

 

I buy this stuff, but boy is it potent...https://www.lebeurrebordier.com/en/new-le-beurre-a-loignon-de-roscoff/#:~:text=The combination of two daily,flaky texture of the onion.

 

[liuzhou]

16 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

The Roscoffs have an interesting history with French Breton farmers or farm workers (onion Johnnys) selling those pink onions in England and Wales. 

 

and Scotland!

 

I have a clear memory of the onion Johnny coming round and my mother getting excited because, as the daughter of a refugee from Hitler living in Scotland, she seldom had the chance to speak French with anyone outside her family. The problem was the onion Johnny's and her dialect were about as far apart as it was possible to get - but they somehow managed to communicate (and of course do some onion business).

I mostly remember being fascinated by his ramshackle bicycle which had somehow carried him all that way and by the intricate pleating of the onion stems.

 

Shortly before she passed in 2021 aged 92, she had a sudden moment when she asked my brother if the onion man was still coming. He replied that he wasn't sure. If he had still been alive he would have been around 150 years-old.

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

I buy this stuff, but boy is it potent...https://www.lebeurrebordier.com/en/new-le-beurre-a-loignon-de-roscoff/#:~:text=The combination of two daily,flaky texture of the onion.

 

Isn’t that the same as @blue_dolphinbuys?  Here

you are fortunate to have easy access to such things. 

[blue_dolphin]

16 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Isn’t that the same as @blue_dolphinbuys?  Here

you are fortunate to have easy access to such things. 

 

Yes, that's the same one I mentioned upthread.  I am lucky to be able to get it easily.  I went to a holiday friend's gathering the other day where we usually exchange small gifts.  I gave everyone butter 🤣

[liuzhou]

Ｉmay already know the answer to this, but I'm not 100% sure. I'm unwilling to influence your answers, so I'm saying nothing yet. What would you call these? For scale, I'll mention that plate is 28cm / 11 inches in diameter. No idea what size my hand is other than hand sized. Do hands get sized?

 

 

 

I don't know why that photograph is blurred on eG; it isn't on my computer. Still, it's only for scale, again.

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

It looks like one of the things that they sell here in Costa Rica as scallions. Is the flavor mild?

[liuzhou]

4 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

It looks like one of the things that they sell here in Costa Rica as scallions. Is the flavor mild?

 

Definitely more oniony-y than scallions.

[weinoo]

Ambition Shallot

[Tropicalsenior]

9 minutes ago, weinoo said:

Ambition Shallot

Those can't be the ones that we get because they say that these have white flesh. Ours are definitely a pink striped flesh.

[Anna N]

23 minutes ago, weinoo said:

Ambition Shallot

The ones that @liuzhoushows seem to be more round than those. 

[blue_dolphin]

8 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Ｉmay already know the answer to this, but I'm not 100% sure. I'm unwilling to influence your answers, so I'm saying nothing yet. What would you call these? For scale, I'll mention that plate is 28cm / 11 inches in diameter. No idea what size my hand is other than hand sized. Do hands get sized?

 

 

 

I don't know why that photograph is blurred on eG; it isn't on my computer. Still, it's only for scale, again.

 

 

Can we see a cross-sectional view?  They do look rather like shallots.  I didn't realize there were so many types - see photos of 13 varieties here. 

[Anna N]

54 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

Can we see a cross-sectional view?  They do look rather like shallots.  I didn't realize there were so many types - see photos of 13 varieties here. 

Good grief. Who knew? I was aware of shallots and banana shallots!  Thanks for posting this list although I doubt I’ll see many of them. 

[liuzhou]

12 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Can we see a cross-sectional view?  They do look rather like shallots.

 

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

30 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

 

 

 

They still look rather like shallots.

 

[liuzhou]

This is raises an important point. In popular terminology names for the various alliums and related species is uncontrolled. What you may call one thing, I may call another and who is to say who is correct? Of course, this applies to many foodstuffs. You may use cilantro as a herb; I use coriander instead, for example. I prefer rocket to your arugula.

 

But it seems to cause more confusion in what we might loosely refer to as onions, if only we could agree what they are!

 

Even the scientific names get jumbled. 'Shallot' comes from the old French 'eschalot', now 'échalotte' which was the diminutive of  'eschaloigne' which meant scallion!

 

 

The items above for which I asked about your terms are known locally in Chinese as variously 小洋葱 (xiǎo yáng cōng, literally 'small onion*') or 洋葱头 (yáng cōng tóu, 'onion heads'). I've seen these translated as alternatively 'shallots' or 'small onions'.  However, they are not true shallots, which are Allium Ascalonicum but, in fact, are Allium Cepa, regular onions. In fact, besides being used in dinner (they are sometimes used peeled but whole in hotpots, but aren't particularly popular) these are mainly used as seed onions to grow the larger varieties. They come in both red and brown skinned varieties.

 

I use them as shallots as I've never seen Allium Ascalonicum  here.

 

* Incidentally, the OED defines 'shallot' as 'A small onion, Allium Ascalonicum, native in Syria and cultivated for use as a flavouring ingredient for salads, sauces, etc.'  (My emphasis.)

 

 

Here is what passes for 'onion' in China. Known as 大葱 (dà cōng, literally 'big onion'), these are Allium fistulosum, which are often called Welsh onions in English, despite being nothing to do with Wales. What we call regular onions, the Chinese call 洋葱 (yáng cōng) , which literally means 'foreign onions'.