Guest contributor Dare Johnson Wenzler is a Capitol Hill resident, Realtor and co-owner of First Vine Wine Imports + Sales. This post also appeared on her blog Vine Art
Forget cherry blossoms, tulips, Easter bunnies and all the other hackneyed harbingers of Spring. For me, spring means one thing and one thing only.
It’s onion season!
$10 will buy you 10 pounds of sweet Vidalia onions at Safeway this week! The higher sugar content of the Vidalia onions makes them particularly appealing for use in salads, on sandwiches and in dishes where milder, less pungent flavor is the goal. Onions are loaded with health benefits; they are a great source of anti oxidants, Vitamin C and a whole lot of other great things!
Most simply, I like slicing Vidalias very thinly (using a mandolin) to pile on a sandwich. I also like using them to make onion squares – a quiche type dish that uses sour cream, biscuit mix and lots and lots of chopped Vidalia onion (recipe follows).
You can serve onion squares as an entree, but cut into smaller squares they also make a great hors d’oeuvre served with cocktails or a dry sparkling wine. A bright, bubbly slightly acidic wine is fun to pair with a rich creamy food like the onion squares because it is able to cut right through the richness and provides a great and refreshing balance.
Onion Squares
Ingredients:
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 cups biscuit mix
- 3-4 TBSP fresh chopped parsley
- 2 cups chopped sweet onion, about 2 large sweet onions
- 2 TBSP butter
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- ¼ TSP nutmeg
- salt
- pepper
- smoky paprika
Directions:
Blend egg and milk with biscuit mix and 2 TBSP chopped parsley. Turn dough mixture into greased 9-inch square pan. Sauté onions in butter until tender and lightly browned. Spread onions on dough in baking pan. Whisk egg with sour cream; season with salt and pepper then spread over onions. Bake onion squares at 400° for 25 minutes. Cut into squares, sprinkle with remaining chopped parsley and a little smoky paprika, serve hot or warm.