Saturday, November 24, 2012

More roofs and chimneys

These are on the Château de Chaumont, seen from inside the castle's courtyard. I was pointing the camera nearly into the sun, which is why the light is a little funky.

I think the chimneys are particularly ornate.

Most of the trees on our property have now dropped all their leaves. We've got to get outside and get them up before they begin to rot on the ground. Joy.

Some of you asked for a couple of the recipes from our Thanksgiving meal. I wish I had photos of everything I made to go along with them. Here's the first, for the caramelized onions we served with the duck pâté. It's more a technique than a recipe, so you can mess around with the ingredients to your liking.

Confit d'oignions au miel (onion preserves with honey)
  • 300 g white onions (I used standard yellow onions)
  • 100 g honey
  • 25 cl white wine vinegar or cider vinegar (I used about 2/3 of this amount)
  • zest of one lemon
  • 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
  • 2 cloves (or 1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground cloves or allspice)
  • 1 small red chili pepper (or 1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper)
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Peel and thinly slice the onions. Slice chili pepper.

In a saucepan, bring to a boil the vinegar, honey, cloves, chili pepper, and lemon zest. Add the onions and salt and let them cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and let cook another 30 minutes, or until the most of the liquid is gone. Don't let the onions brown. Let cool completely before serving.

10 comments:

  1. Thanks for the recipe :-) One to try out over Christmas.

    Good luck with the leaves. There's just way too much for us to rake so we cheat and leave them as they are. They get mulched next spring by the lawnmower.

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  2. Thanks, Walt. I'm going to make this
    in a smallish slow cooker to insure
    that the onions don't brown, just
    "melt."









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  3. Too bad I don't like onions because I am sure it is delicious!

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  4. Thanks for the recipe. I'll bet it was fabulous with that terrine.

    So, Walt, what's the story on your photo in the iPad Mini advertisement?

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  5. Thank you for this recipe! We all love onions!

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  6. Yes, Walt, did you get a hefty sum for your Vermont photo extraordinaire??? Please let us in on the secret!

    Belated Happy Thanksgiving to you and Ken (Bertie and Callie, as well).

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  7. When I first glanced at your recette, I thought it was 300 onions!

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  8. n&a, I am tempted to do likewise, but I know that the grass under the leaves will die if I leave the leaves over winter. No rest for the weary!

    sheila, that sounds like a good idea.

    nadege, you might like them like this!

    judy, well, someone from an ad agency contacted me to ask if they could use the photo. I suspected a scam, so I tried to be very careful, but we talked on the phone and I signed contracts and there's the ad! The process took about a month to complete.

    kristi, :)

    mary, I was compensated, and it was more than I expected, but I won't reveal the details!

    starman, well, that would feed a crowd!

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  9. This would also go well with foie gras, so I think I'll try making it for our Christmas crowd.
    Congratulations on the photo, by the way.

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Tell me what you think!