So it's been frickin’ cold, and that big bag of costco large sweet white onions froze. Whoops. So I've made mung dhal soup, and spaghetti, and now this savory muffin, all in an attempt to use these things up before they thaw, and then rot. Somewhere or other (boingboing, I think) I saw some master chef mince onion super-super fine, which gave sort of a slurry. I discovered that grating frozen onions, even using the fairly large holes, gives exactly the same effect. And for those of you who would rather have frozen fingers than weeping, frozen onions don't make you cry, even during the quite aggressive grating process.

I've now made this recipe 3x, updates below.

It's not something I'd probably do deliberately, but cooking with frozen onions is proving to be kind of interesting. This recipe is more or less adapted from the idea of a jalopeno cheddar cornbread; hence the cornmeal, the jalopeno jelly (which is crystallizing and needs to be used up). Likewise, I'm tired of these black and white sesame seeds, which stand in for the nuts I normally add to muffins, and which make for attractive black speckles. Ditto the chickpea flour, which not only adds protein, but also helps to balance the sweetness of the onions. (Honestly, these onions were so sweet I could probably do a date or raisin version, heh, heh, heh...)

• 1 large frozen vidalia, grated & fried in 1t olive oil (about 1C/6oz after cooking)
• 1/4 C chickpea? flour
• 1/2 C cornmeal
• 1/2 C oatmeal
• 1/2 + 1T all purpose wheat flour/1/2 C pastry flour
• 2 T flax
• 1/4 C mixed sesame seeds (1/2 C is probably too many)
• 1-1/4 C grated cheese (3 oz) e.g. sharp cheddar
• 1/4 C (1oz) sundried tomato, finely chopped^[1] optional
• 1/4-1/3 C (2 oz) chopped pitted black olives optional
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/8 t baking soda —omit if using sweet milk.
• 1-1/4 t baking powder
• 3/4 (or perhaps less) lowfat vanilla yogurt^[2] or milk
• 4t (heaping T) mango jalopeno pepper jam (optional) ^[3]
• 1 egg
• 2 T oil^[4]
• pam

Method. Cut onion in half, and remove skins, reserving leaf end to use as a handle. Using “standard” (1cm holes) grate as much of onion as possible, chopping finely the rest. Spread oil on cast iron skillet, distribute onion evenly in 1/2" layer on bottom, cooking on 8 (medium high heat) till steam reduces. Flip, reduce heat to 3 (low) and continue browning.

Meanwhile grate cheese, and assemble dry ingredients in bowl. Stir to mix/remove lumps. Add yogurt, egg and oil. (N.b., hand slipped, meant to do 1T. But muffin exteriors did brown beautifully) Beat wet ingredients in a well of dry, then mix cheese and enough onion to make standard muffin paste.

At or around this time the onion should be brown on bottom. Add to recipe.

Spray generous coating of pam into aluminum muffin pan. Distribute batter evenly in 12 cups. Bake at 360 for approximately 19 minutes.

Note: If using milk instead of yogurt, start with onion, then add milk as needed. Letting onion cook as directed above while prepping ingredients meant it pretty much caramelized perfectly. The sundried tomatoes make the recipe sweeter, the olives more savory—recommend one or the other.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.

Sylvus Tarn