The Humble Ingredient

It is time for Weekend Herb Blogging again and our current host is Becky of Key Lime and Coconut. Today, the main theme of my entry is onion, the humble universal ingredient.

There is no doubt that onion is a universal ingredient, something that we almost cannot cook without. In Vietnamese cuisine, we tend to use a lot of fresh spring onions (scallion) and shallots. But even so, the normal onion is still essential in some dishes especially with beef. Lydia of The Perfect Pantry has an excellent post about onion on her blog, do check it out for some interesting information. And here is some of the advice on how to slice/chop onion without crying. Talking about that, can anyone tell me a method that really works? I am still struggling with chopping onions without the tears (Note: I am wearing glasses, but it doesn´t seem to help a lot!).

I actually do not like the taste of raw onion and often avoid it in salad. However, when onion is cooked (fried, roasted or sauté), I can´t resist. The cooked onion has such a sweet and delicate flavour that is so different from the raw one. Having that in mind, I spent my limited free time to bake the Yoghurt Bread with Caramelised Onion from Bread the Universal Loaf by Tamara Milstein. I once nearly threw out that book thinking that I would never bake bread. Lucky I didn´t since Milstein has some nice bread ideas that are worth trying.

I really love this onion bread. It has a very nice sweetness from the onions. The light sourness from the yoghurt reminds me of sourdough bread. The bread was heavenly straight from the oven. My flatmate and I just dig in and nearly finished the two loaves for dinner. With a little self-control, the leftover lasted until the next morning and we still wanted some more. I will make this again, and perhaps try to apply the same principle in other bread dough for a bit of experiment.

Yoghurt Bread with Caramelised Onion

Adapted from recipe by Tamara Milstein

Starter

1 cup wholemeal flour

1 cup plain yoghurt

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp yeast

¼ cup warm water

Onions

50g butter

4 large onion, sliced

Dough

1 tablespoon dried yeast

¼ cup warm water

1 tsp sugar

11/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2-3 cup wholemeal flour

Olive oil, to drizzle

Method

One day before:

In a large mixing bowl, combine the starter ingredients. Mix well and set aside to ferment for 24 hours.

The next day:

Melt butter in a saucepan, add sliced onion. Cook over medium heat until onions are translucent. Cover and continue to cook over low heat until the onions are golden brown. Set aside to cool.

Mix yeast, water & sugar together and sit for 10 mins. Mix this mixture to the prepared bread dough with the salt, half of the caramelized onions and baking soda. Slowly add more flour until the dough forms a shaggy mass.

Knead the dough, adding as much flour as needed. When the dough is smooth and manageable, let it rise until doubled (40-60 mins, depending on temperature).

Remove the dough from the bowl and divide in half. Shape each piece of dough into a flat oval loaf, about 1½ cm (2/3 inch) thick. Use your fingertip to add texture to the dough. Scatter the remaining onions over the top, drizzle with olive oil. Allow to rest for 30-40 mins.

Spray the dough with water and bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 25- 30 mins or until golden and crusty.

Tag: Weekend Herb Blogging bread baking