Shallots

[wskrz]

I love frying up sliced shallots in butter and some olive oil and tossing in some steamed green beans, although I'm sure that you could do this with almost any fresh vegetable. Also great in risotto.

[chef koo]

basically anything savory that you would make, jsut add some shallots. soups, salads, dips, stews, sauces, braised items, roast em, fry em, mix em in mashed potatoes, put in with your rice, pastas, use it for marinades, put it in salad dressings, stuff meats with it, grill them, use it as a veg on its own, stir fry it with other veg, put it into savory tarts, stuff other things into the shallots... did i say make sauces with it? put into sandwiches, mix int bread doughs, mix it into pasta doughs...gasp

[bbq chef]

Get about 2 dozen oysters. Mix up minced shallot, good red wine vinegar, and fresh cracked black pepper for your own homemade mignonette sauce. Shuck oysters, add mignonette and slurp!

[StanSherman]

I've been using shallots in every dish lately. I've pickled some and this is what's left.

[heidih]

Thinly sliced fried shallots are a staple in SouthEast Asian cuisines, added as a crunchy taste and texture condiment. Great sprinkled over salads. They can be stored in an airtight container for some time.

[Ashen]

a shallot jam, chutney , marmalade would be pretty tasty and a great way to preserve those. I don't have a specific recipe for you but there are results on google for all three of those.

[Darienne]

My usual, thrifty, but lazy, response to vegetable excesses is to peel, slice, roast in olive oil, and stick into the freezer for later use in stews, soups, enchiladas, casseroles, etc.

[Jaymes]

Not a lot of things much better to put over a steak than chopped shallots briefly sauteed in a little butter.

[C. sapidus]

Braised shallot confit, from Molly Stevens' All About Braising. Double the recipe, and then to be safe, double it again.

[StanSherman]

Child unit number 2 helped out this week and actually got 250 pounds of various potatoes, 300 pounds of various varieties of onions bagged and 30 pounds of garlic all bagged and labeled for specific uses in the basement.

The shallots just take so much time to put up. Our home preserved larder is at ridiculous levels. The Amish are laughing at me. We may get our first freeze next week and there is no way for us to process everything.

One neighbor doesn't have cancer, the other has prostate not colon cancer, two neighborhood grand babies were born this week. We're getting real tempted to dig a hole in the garden and let the next rain fill it. Next,have everyone over for a food/mud pig fest.

[andiesenji]

In the earlier post I noted that I prepare dried shallots, which are excellent keepers, in fact, they keep longer than dried onions or garlic.

You don't even have to peel them. I slice them on the mandoline, and dry them in the dehydrator but before I got my first dehydrator, I dried them in my ovens set to the lowest temp, with the door open a few inches to allow for expelled moisture to escape.

To use you can grind them or simply rehydrate them - soak them for an hour or so in water, broth, apple cider (the latter my "invention") or anything that takes your fancy. If you prepare a liquid marinade, just plop the dried shallot chips into it and they will rehydrate and flavor the marinade.

I checked the note on the container and the last batch consisted of 10 pounds of raw shallots and yielded slightly less than 2 pounds of dried.

Like all dried products, the flavor is concentrated and a little goes a long way.

[ScoopKW]

Compound butter is a great way to preserve shallots. I've got 20 pounds of shallot parsley butter in the freezer. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Mince. Sweat 'em off, cool, add minced parsley and mix with softened unsalted butter. (I like to adjust the salt myself.)

[qrn]

Are you growing them in your garden???I used to, but have not for the last few years...those looked so good I may have to find some more to plant...

Bud

[Jenni]

Are you familiar with the South Indian dish sambar? Because vengaya sambar (shallot or "baby onion" sambar) is one of the finer things in life!

[StanSherman]

Are you growing them in your garden???I used to, but have not for the last few years...those looked so good I may have to find some more to plant...

Bud

Yes, we grew two 50 foot rows. For our situation the spring bulbs from Hirt's Gardens produced the best.

[StanSherman]

Are you familiar with the South Indian dish sambar? Because vengaya sambar (shallot or "baby onion" sambar) is one of the finer things in life!

I had it with onions at my favorite Indian restaurant that just recently closed. It was wonderful! I'd appreciate your ideas on the best recipe. I'm going to an Indian market on Tuesday (the closest is 90 miles away).

[MikeHartnett]

Are you familiar with the South Indian dish sambar? Because vengaya sambar (shallot or "baby onion" sambar) is one of the finer things in life!

I had it with onions at my favorite Indian restaurant that just recently closed. It was wonderful! I'd appreciate your ideas on the best recipe. I'm going to an Indian market on Tuesday (the closest is 90 miles away).

Mangoes and Curry Leaves by Alford and Duguid has a good recipe. Click the link below and then on pg. 187.

http://books.google.com/books?id=7PPbE11G49wC&pg=PA186&dq=mangoes+and+curry+leaves+shallot+sambar&hl=en&ei=GEJtTqm8E8atsAKh7oWnBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=sambhar&f=false

[Marlene]

Roasted shallots are awesome

[Cleo]

I love this Barefoot Contessa recipe for string beans with shallots. Won't use up a ton of shallots, but you can certainly use more than the recipe calls for.

[Jenni]

Are you familiar with the South Indian dish sambar? Because vengaya sambar (shallot or "baby onion" sambar) is one of the finer things in life!

I had it with onions at my favorite Indian restaurant that just recently closed. It was wonderful! I'd appreciate your ideas on the best recipe. I'm going to an Indian market on Tuesday (the closest is 90 miles away).

Ah but homemade will be much better!

I do have a recipe but I am currently writing it up as part of a book that I am foolishly going to try and get published. So I won't reveal my personal recipe. However, I did a quick google and found a couple of recipes that are fairly similar to what I do.

http://www.awesomecuisine.com/recipes/676/1/Vengaya-Sambar/Page1.html

http://anubhavati.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/vengaya-sambar-onions-sauted-and-boiled-in-tamarind-gravy-with-ground-coconut-spices/

These are made with a fresh masala prepared especially for the dish instead of a premade spice powder. This always gives a very different flavour, even if you make your own sambar powder (which I do).

[Keith_W]

As an Asian we used to make fried shallots and (as heidih says) ... use it as a condiment for many dishes. Sprinkle some on steamed fish, or stir fried veggies, or tofu, or steamed eggs, or congee, or noodles, or omelettes, or fried rice ... the possibilities are endless.

Slice the shallots thinly, then fry until browned and all the liquid is gone. We would let the oil cool, then filter it and pour it back into the container. The oil is intensely fragrant and will lift anything you cook it with. Both shallots and oil will turn rancid if not used within 2 weeks - so unless you cook Chinese food all the time, you should make small quantities.

[Paul Bacino]

Pickling..

http://www.thehungryengineer.com/cooking/pickled-shallots/

Never tried this recipe, but I pickle all sorts of stuff. Did my Spicy green beans this weekend.