Sweet Caramelized Bliss

In the neighborhood where JR lived as a child, there was a family that he insists ate caramelized onions at dinner every night. This makes me believe that they must have also eaten either beef or pork every night as well as caramelized onions best complement meaty dishes – you wouldn’t normally think of having caramelized onions with cod, after all – so perhaps caramelized onions were their budget concession in order that they could afford meat with such regularity. Or perhaps JR only imagined that they enjoyed caramelized onions each and every day. And I can see why he might dream that dream, for, in addition to going well with meat, caramelized onions elevate the humble onion to a sublime comestible. One which happens to top off mashed potatoes rather nicely, to boot, which is of infinite value if you are a meat-and-potatoes lover.

Caramelized onions also happen to be quite versatile – think toppings for pizza, salad, focaccia bread, an addition to a frittata – and, as mentioned once or twice above, as a side dish for meats – and have I mentioned their affinity for mashed potatoes?

As described here, this side dish costs $3.10 for four servings. The onions should be the least expensive you can find – there’s no need to spend your money on sweet onions for this as the onions will be made sweet by caramelizing. I bought a two-pound bag of yellow onions at Whole Foods for $1.65. The butter is 1/4 of a package that costs $2.79, so that’s 70-cents. The balsamic is not the fancy-schmancy aged balsamic, it is the more common type found in every grocery store and was $7.99 for a bottle containing 33 tablespoons. Break that down, and for three tablespoons, it costs 72-cents. And the magical sugar that creates the caramel was 3-cents.

Dinner tonight: People, check your sales fliers. This week, Maine shrimp is on sale at my local Whole Foods. Thus, we are having Shrimp with Broccoli and Linguine in a Garlicy-Lemon Sauce. Estimated cost for two: $6.89. The shrimp were $3.99 per pound. These are not jumbo shrimp and they are going to require me to peel and de-vein them myself, but we haven’t had shrimp in a very long time, and so I am quite happy to clean them up. We only need a half-pound for this dish, so that’s $2.00. The garlic will be around 15-cents, the shallot will cost 25-cents. The lemon is $1.20 at 60-cents each. The butter for the dish is 35-cents, the olive oil is 33-cents. I’m using both oil and butter so that the butter keeps from burning as it cooks. It’s a trick you can use yourself. That’s why I share. The linguine is half of a one-pound box that cost $1.99, so that’s $1.00. The broccoli cost $1.61 for just over 3/4-pound. I suppose we could use less than the entire head of broccoli, but for the sake of rounding up, we’ll just leave it at that. So we get to have a seafood meal for less than $7.00. Not too shabby. Beef and shrimp all in the same week? Sweet.