Can I just run this one past all you experienced cooks out there please?

Olliebeak

Most of the recipes that we use (for casserole/soup type things) begin with 'sweating onions/vegetables etc in oil' to make the base of the recipe.

I've been trying this out in my microwave using onions, peppers etc in a drop of water to soften them first.

It strikes me that this is reducing the amount of fat in the end product but am wondering if I'm missing something in some way.

I've only ever picked up recipes and stuff - never did domestic science/cookery at school - so have no idea of 'the chemistry of cooking'. I do know enough to realise that certain cooking methods release essential vitamins better than others, or make foods easier to digest - so can anybody tell me I'm doing something 'essentially incorrect' by softening veggies first in the microwave instead of in the frying pan?

Many thanks in advance, Ollie (the thicko pretend cook!:o )

kethry

hmm. had to think long and hard about this. I think it depends on the recipe, but where you're softening your veg as a basis for something, it should be okay in the microwave. When you sweat onions/veg you really only soften them and give them a bit of a kick start, and often, they go on to be "boiled" anyway, e.g. in a stock or something. About the only time i can think of that you actually would need to do it in oil on the stove is for something like onion soup, where the onion is a major constituent of the food.

i've done a search on google for sweating food and got this, which confirms what i said above, about tenderising the veg before you go on to cook them. as far as i can see, how you tenderise them shouldn't matter overmuch. I also found this, someone else who does it in the microwave (although they add fat to it instead of water; if you're not doing this for health reasons then you may wish to do the same for taste reasons).

The only way really to know for sure is to make 2 or 3 of the same thing with different methods and taste them!

All that, of course, is only for veg: some meats really have to be browned to get a certain flavour in

HTH

keth
xx

thriftlady_2

Cooking something in fat makes them taste nicer, as far as I know that is the only reason it is done -and a very good reason as we want our food to taste as nice as possible.

A good way, however to add flavour to the base veg without adding fat is to dry fry them very gently until beginning to catch and turn brown. When this happens they should be giving off a strong toasty oniony smell. Next add a splash of stock and/or alcohol -sherry is good or wine. Let it boil and bubble up so that the onions go syrupy and jammy. Then add the rest of your ingredients. Other liquids to add include soy sauce, teriyaki sauce or Worcester sauce. Things like snippets of sun-dried tomatoes or dried mushrooms are good too.

Olliebeak

Thank you, Kethry and Thriftlady.

My initial idea was to avoid getting the frying pan/oil out and then thought about the non-fat side of things.

When using the slow cooker/pressure cooker I don't bother browning the meat first (unless it's sausages or chicken with skin on which I usually remove before cooking). If I was doing braised steak or something like that, I would sear first though - I think that would make a difference to the taste of the meat juices for the gravy.

I've got some lovely softened peppers (red, yellow and green) and a large onion to start off a chicken casserole for tomorrow - including the tasty water that they were softened in. Using a couple of chicken breast fillets with some mushrooms and a tin of chopped tomatoes with an added chicken stock cube.

organic_wanabe

A chef at a top hotel (Gleneagles in Scotland) told me a good alternative to 'sweating' onions was to cook them for a short time in wine. I must get around to trying it - especially now that it has been endorsed by thriftlady - there is usually some wine open, but I prefer to drink it!

Penelope_Penguin

Onions contain antioxidants which it is suggested help to prevent illnesses such as cancer. I like to add lots to pasta sauces, casseroles, soups and the like. One on the Small Penguins once professed to be unable to eat them, so as an experiment I left them out - result was tasteless.

Sometimes I soften them in a little water in a lidded pan, and the end result tastes just as good.

Penny. x

Olliebeak

I have a b-i-l who refuses to eat anything at all if he sees so much as a 'hint of an onion' (40 years old!).

I have disguised onions in things by grating them before cooking.

He doesn't object to the taste of the onions - it's the sight of them that puts him off !

soappie

Olliebeak wrote: »

I have a b-i-l who refuses to eat anything at all if he sees so much as a 'hint of an onion' (40 years old!).

I have disguised onions in things by grating them before cooking.

He doesn't object to the taste of the onions - it's the sight of them that puts him off !

That's just like my DS! If anything looks remotely like an onion, he'll refuse to eat it. However, he just adores my spag bol and I don't have the heart to tell him that it's full of onion - just chopped up really small :rotfl:

stilernin

Sweating onions makes them sweeter and so improves the flavour of a recipe.

If you have a decent non stick frying pan you can sweat them with just a teaspoon of oil. Heat up the pan, add the oil to heat up then add the onions. The trick is not to keep the heat medium rather than high which will brown the onions too quickly.

csarina

They say that not searing meat does not affect the taste, but I beg to differ, I think you need to sear meat to 'lock in' the taste. Personally, I 'dry fry the onions in a non stick pan, if they start to catch I add a little white wine. If you are cooking something like sausages for a casserole, you can put the sausage and inions in the pan and the onions will cook in the fat which 'escapes' from the sausage, then add a splash of red wine, a stock cube, tomato puree, garlic and a small tim of canellini beans, cook slowly for about 20 minutes, and then serve with mashed spud. You can thicken the gravy with a little cornflower.

If I make stuffing I always add extra onion and I do cook this in the micro in a tablespoon of water before adding it to the stuffing mix.

I have a grandson who will pick out any onions, so if I make tomato sauce for pasta for instance I put the onion through the food processor and then add it to the sauce.........he eats it in bol, because by the time he comes to eat it the onion has more or less disintegrated into the bol.

We have just finished supper, liver and sausage casserole, cooked with loads of onions.............yummy...................

kunekune

I had a book about low fat cooking once (Sue Kreitzmann was the author, I think) where she started quite a few recipes with an alternative to frying onions. If I recall correctly, the onions went in the pan with some stock and various other flavourings: dried sun dried tomatoes, slivers of black olives, garlic, etc. They were simmered until the liquid was nearly gone, then you carried on as normal. The recipes worked out fantastically, the only low fat recipes I ever felt like recommending. I don't know whether you could do this in the microwave, that is was slow-ish was probably important, but it definitely works on the hob.