Tomato-Simmered Onions

I've worked in New York City near Madison Square Park for many years. One day in 2004 a burger stand called the Shake Shack opened. It seemed like overnight, people were lining up around the park (often for close to an hour) for their juicy ShackBurgers and concretes (shakes). The line gets so long, they even have a shack cam on their website so you can peek and see how long the line is before you decide whether or not to head out.

This recipe for tomato-simmered onions is from the Shake Shack. Alone, these onions are not standing-on-a-long-line worthy, but they do dress up a homemade burger very nicely.

TOMATO-SIMMERED ONIONS

Yield: 4 cups

1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced
1/3 cup champagne vinegar
1/2 cup tomato purée
salt to taste

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1.      In a large sauté pan over medium heat, heat oil until shimmering. Add onions and season with a generous pinch of salt. Cook until very soft but not browned, about 15 minutes.

2.      Add vinegar to pan and simmer for 10 minutes.

3.      Add tomato purée and simmer for another 10 minutes.

from Shake Shack (New York, NY)

onions

sliced onions

onions just added to the pan

vinegar added

adding the tomato puree

ready for the cookout

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Beet and Carrot Pancakes

These beet and carrot pancakes are not only a striking deep red, but they taste terrific (especially with sour cream on top). I suspect even beet haters will like them. Of course I'm not totally sure because the beet hater at my house (my 6-year-old), wouldn't even taste one. I tried to coax her by adding sour cream (forgetting she doesn't like the looks of that either), so she just said 'ew'. Her loss (my husband and I happily scarfed up all of them).

BEET AND CARROT PANCAKES

Makes 6-8 pancakes

1 1/3 cups (packed) coarsely shredded peeled beets (from 2 medium)

1 cup coarsely shredded peeled carrots (from 2 medium)

1 cup thinly sliced onion

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

sour cream for serving
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1.      Combine beets, carrots and onion in large bowl. Mix in egg, salt and pepper. Add flour; stir to blend well.

2.      Heat the oil in heavy, very large skillet over medium heat. Using about 1/3 cup beet mixture for each pancake, drop pancakes into skillet. Flatten each into 3-inch round. Cook until brown and cooked through, about 4 minutes per side.

3.      Serve pancakes immediately, topped with sour cream. Can reheat in a 300° F. oven.

slightly adapted from Bon Appétit, March 1998

beets

carrots

beets, carrots and onions

adding the egg

adding the flour

all mixed

pancakes formed and cooking

pancakes flipped

served with sour cream

Yum. These are a nice change of pace from
potato latkes (and more nutritious too).

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Croque Madame

The croque madame is basically a fancy French grilled cheese sandwich. It's usually made with ham and gruyere (or emmental) with béchamel (or mornay) sauce on top. Actually if you stop right there, what you've got is a croque monsieur. To make it a croque madame, you top it with a poached or fried egg. And if you've got a food blog, you sprinkle it with beautiful chives to make the photo pretty. At least in theory (in reality, I forgot until mine was half eaten). Que sera, sera.

CROQUE MADAME

Makes 3 servings

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 cup whole milk

pinch of ground nutmeg

1 bay leaf

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

6 slices firm white sandwich bread

6 ounces thinly sliced black forest ham

4 ounces sliced gruyère cheese, plus 1/4 cup grated

3 large eggs (omit to make croque monsieur)

4 teaspoons chopped fresh chives

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1.      Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and stir 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk. Add nutmeg and bay leaf. Increase heat to medium-high and boil until sauce thickens, whisking constantly, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper; remove bay leaf.

2.      Preheat broiler and melt 2 tablespoons of the butter. Place 3 bread slices on work surface. Top each with 1/3 of the ham and sliced gruyère. Top with remaining bread. Heat heavy large skillet over low heat. Brush sandwiches with melted butter. Add to skillet and cook until deep golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a baking sheet.

3.      Spoon sauce, then grated cheese over sandwiches. Broil until cheese begins to brown, about 2 minutes.  

4.      Heat the remaining tablespoon butter in nonstick skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides, then crack eggs into the skillet and season with salt and pepper. Fry eggs, covered, until whites are just set and yolks are still runny, about 3 minutes. Top each sandwich with a fried egg, sprinkle with chives and serve immediately.

slightly adapted from Bon Appétit, May 2001

adding flour to the butter

whisking the roux

milk, nutmeg and bay leaf added

thickened

slicing the gruyere

I need to get myself a real cheese slicer so all my slices will
be uniform (and so all my fingers will stay on my hand)

ham on bread

gruyere on ham

brushing with butter

toasting

topped with sauce and cheese

broiled

About two minutes after this photo was taken, I finally said   "d'oh! the chives. "

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