Mark R (LR)
TVWBB Super Fan
This is extremely simple and may not qualify as a "recipe", but it is both very good and very easy.
Ingredients:
1 or 2 sweet yellow onions, sliced into thin rings;
buttermilk to cover the rings;
1-2 cups all purpose flour;
seasonings for the flour (the combinations are endless: generally, less salt, more pepper, cayenne, and other seasonings according to taste, preferably Cajun type seasonings)
1 sliced onion should feed just over 2 people (tried it for 3 and ran out because it was so good).
I started from Pioneer Woman's recipe (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/03/onion-strings-oh-yeah-baby/). After talking with others, it's a fairly common approach that boils down to the following:
(1) slice the onion rings and soak them in buttermilk for at least an hour or two (preferably a day or two);
(2) dredge them in seasoned flour; and
(3) fry them for around 1 - 2 minutes in oil at 355-375 F until they reach the desired color.
I intended on taking onion rings to a gathering on Sunday, so I sliced them, put them in buttermilk, and put them in an extra fridge in the garage. I didn't have time to make them before leaving for the gathering, so they sat in the fridge until today (Tuesday). That may have been a fortunate mistake. They came out more tender than usual and were the best onion rings I've ever had, anywhere.
There is no magical recipe for seasoned flour. To fry onion rings made from a couple of onions, I pour about 1.5 - 2 cups of all purpose flour into a large mixing bowl and then stir in the spices using a fork. The seasoning is more art than science, and it is a very forgiving art. I use just a tiny amount of salt, because I salt the rings when they come out of the fryer. I use a healthy dose of pepper (a freshly ground version of a fairly common 4-pepper combo (red, black, white, green), an even greater amount of Dizzy Pig, Swamp Venom (much like Tony Cachere but with about 1/3 of the salt), and a fair amount of cayenne. This is probably a good place to put in a plug for one of my favorite new toys, a Borner mandolin slicer. You can certainly do your slicing without one, but I love mine. I used the thin slicing option once but prefer the thick slicing option for onion rings. Aside from onion rings, I highly recommend the Borner mandolin slicer (as long as you get a kevlar glove to go along with it ... I heard a lot of reports of slicing off finger tips).
I use peanut oil and heat it to 355 F. When the oil is up to temp, I use tongs and a fork to transfer the onion rings from the buttermilk to the seasoned flour, toss to coat the onions, and tap the tongs on the side of the bowl to remove excess flour. Fry the rings in small batches for around 1- 1.5 minutes, until they reach the desired color. Salt them when they come out.
The pleasant surprise was that leaving the onions in the buttermilk for 2 days did not hurt them and, in fact, probably helped. I hope you'll excuse me for giving such a simple "recipe," but I was seriously impressed with how well this simple approach worked. My son is a fairly picky eater and is now a big fan of these onion rings.
Ingredients:
1 or 2 sweet yellow onions, sliced into thin rings;
buttermilk to cover the rings;
1-2 cups all purpose flour;
seasonings for the flour (the combinations are endless: generally, less salt, more pepper, cayenne, and other seasonings according to taste, preferably Cajun type seasonings)
1 sliced onion should feed just over 2 people (tried it for 3 and ran out because it was so good).
I started from Pioneer Woman's recipe (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/03/onion-strings-oh-yeah-baby/). After talking with others, it's a fairly common approach that boils down to the following:
(1) slice the onion rings and soak them in buttermilk for at least an hour or two (preferably a day or two);
(2) dredge them in seasoned flour; and
(3) fry them for around 1 - 2 minutes in oil at 355-375 F until they reach the desired color.
I intended on taking onion rings to a gathering on Sunday, so I sliced them, put them in buttermilk, and put them in an extra fridge in the garage. I didn't have time to make them before leaving for the gathering, so they sat in the fridge until today (Tuesday). That may have been a fortunate mistake. They came out more tender than usual and were the best onion rings I've ever had, anywhere.
There is no magical recipe for seasoned flour. To fry onion rings made from a couple of onions, I pour about 1.5 - 2 cups of all purpose flour into a large mixing bowl and then stir in the spices using a fork. The seasoning is more art than science, and it is a very forgiving art. I use just a tiny amount of salt, because I salt the rings when they come out of the fryer. I use a healthy dose of pepper (a freshly ground version of a fairly common 4-pepper combo (red, black, white, green), an even greater amount of Dizzy Pig, Swamp Venom (much like Tony Cachere but with about 1/3 of the salt), and a fair amount of cayenne. This is probably a good place to put in a plug for one of my favorite new toys, a Borner mandolin slicer. You can certainly do your slicing without one, but I love mine. I used the thin slicing option once but prefer the thick slicing option for onion rings. Aside from onion rings, I highly recommend the Borner mandolin slicer (as long as you get a kevlar glove to go along with it ... I heard a lot of reports of slicing off finger tips).
I use peanut oil and heat it to 355 F. When the oil is up to temp, I use tongs and a fork to transfer the onion rings from the buttermilk to the seasoned flour, toss to coat the onions, and tap the tongs on the side of the bowl to remove excess flour. Fry the rings in small batches for around 1- 1.5 minutes, until they reach the desired color. Salt them when they come out.
The pleasant surprise was that leaving the onions in the buttermilk for 2 days did not hurt them and, in fact, probably helped. I hope you'll excuse me for giving such a simple "recipe," but I was seriously impressed with how well this simple approach worked. My son is a fairly picky eater and is now a big fan of these onion rings.
