Keeping it simple

WHILE WE ARE ALL LOOKING FORWARD to greeting 2021 — and saying goodbye to 2020, I am more in favor than ever of keeping life simple and enjoying what little pleasures we can find in these difficult days.

On New Year’s Eve, I will probably make a small onion pie in honor of my family tradition. I wrote about it here.

But if I decide not to make it, that will be okay too.

I have some pizza dough in the refrigerator and I believe pizza goes very well with a glass of bubbly. Last evening I put some pesto on a small round of dough, with both mozzarella and feta cheese atop. I was too lazy to make a salad so I just topped the pizza with steamed baby greens and a drizzle of olive oil. It was so delicious I just might make it again!

WORTH A SECOND LOOK: “A New Year of Simple Pleasures”

A new year of simple pleasures

Sorting through some old photos the other day, I came across this picture of my Oma–my grandmother on my dad’s side– and was struck by it.

I can’t recall ever seeing her with such an expression of joy. And the reason? I think it is the simple pleasure of eating that apple.

That photo brings to mind one of my favorite Italian sayings, which is up on my fridge where I see it every day: Apprezza di piu le piccole cose della vita. A rough translation: Appreciate more the small things in life.

This saying is kind of a guidepost for me, better than any New Years resolution. (I stopped making  resolutions years ago because I didn’t want to keep feeling disappointed in myself.)

At New Year’s Eve, I especially appreciate the small traditions my parents established for celebrating the holiday at home with the family. During the day, my brother, sisters and I cut construction paper into confetti, filling bowls with the colorful squares. In the kitchen, we helped my parents make the festive foods we’d eat for the occasion: onion pie and colorful “Italian” potato salad.  At night, while we listened to music on the radio (WFMT’s “Midnight Special,” the Saturday night folk show that took listener requests on New Year’s Eve) our family played card games or Scrabble and the kids drank ginger-ale (a big treat as we rarely were allowed soda pop) while my parents toasted with Champagne. And at midnight on the East Coast and in Chicago we banged on pots and pans with wooden spoons and threw confetti all over.

After a late-night meal of onion pie, Italian potato salad and knockwurst (how the heck did we sleep after that?), we children tumbled into bed while my parents washed the dishes and swept up the confetti.

As an adult I still follow most of these traditions–though I leave the confetti on the floor to enjoy the next day. Time enough to sweep it up later.

About that Italian potato salad: It really isn’t Italian. It’s a variation of the classic warm German potato salad with  vinaigrette dressing (no mayo!), but the warm potatoes soak up the beet juice, turning them a wonderful shade of deep pink blush, and the rings of chopped pickled beets, white onion, pickles, and hard-boiled egg white and yolk turn an ordinary potato salad into a party! I think the “Italian” in the name must be a reference to Italy’s colors of red, white and green in the salad’s decorative circles.

I’ll post the original recipe below…but lately I do a few things differently: I cut the recipe approximately in half and I skip adding herring to the salad and just serve it on the side for those who like it. It’s fine without it and I don’t put herring juice in the dressing either, adding a little more vinegar and oil in place of it. (Vegans also could also eliminate the eggs and just find a colorful substitute for the topping–chopped carrots? lemon rind?)

And of course, you could cook (and pickle) your own beets rather than using canned ones, but I never get around to doing that. Also, I don’t eat the knockwurst with it.

“Italian” Potato Salad for New Year’s Eve

• 5 pounds of red or white potatoes, peeled and boiled until tender, but not soft
• 1½ large mild white onions
• ½ of a 6-ounce jar of pickled herring (reserve juice for the dressing)
• 1 15-ounce can of diced beets (reserve juice for dressing)
• 6 hard-boiled eggs
• ½ cup chopped pickles
• 3 teaspoons salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper

Dressing:

• ¼ cup oil  (olive oil or other)
• ¼ cup vinegar (white wine vinegar is good)
• ½ cup water or soup stock
• juice from the canned beets
• ½ the juice from the herring

1. Cut the warm potatoes into chunks and place in a large bowl.  Chop the herring finely, and add to the salad.  Mince the white onion, and reserve ½ cup in a small bowl  Peel the hard-boiled eggs, separate the egg whites from the yolks, and chop each finely, reserving 2 tablespoons of the yolks and ¼ cup of the whites in separate bowls.  Reserve ¼ cup of the pickles, and ¾ cup of the diced beets, each in a separate bowl.
2. Mix together all the unreserved ingredients (the chopped eggs, pickles, onions, and beets) in the bowl with the potatoes.   Add the salt and pepper.
3. Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing, and pour over the potato salad.  Mix well, until the ingredients are evenly distributed and the potatoes are uniformly colored pink.
4. Decorate the salad as follows:  sprinkle a band of diced beets around the outer edge of the salad bowl, then a band of minced white onions, and then a circle of chopped pickles. Next, sprinkle the chopped egg whites in a small circle, and finish with a large dot of egg yolk in the middle.
5. Serve immediately, or refrigerate until ready to serve.

Wishing you all a very happy 2011!

An homage to onions

Red, white, yellow or green -- onions are magnificent

Start with an onion. Peel it, slice it or chop or dice it, sauté it in some oil or butter until it’s tender and golden.

The number of savory recipes that begin this way is uncountable.  Onions are a kitchen staple: cheap, flavorful and easy to store. Really, what would cooks do without them?

Brown (or yellow) ones store the longest and are most economical; white and red ones are milder in flavor, especially for using raw. All onions develop sweetness when cooked. Though there aren’t so many recipes that feature onions (onion soup being a major exception) they do so much to flavor other foods, from the essential earthy base in soups and stews to the sublime caramelized topping for pizza and flatbreads.

A recipe that Cathy gave me the other day for lemon chicken with rice is a perfect example, using two of my kitchen favorites, lemons and onions. It begins with sautéeing a chopped onion; then you brown some pieces of chicken, add rice (1 cup), lemon juice (1/2 cup), broth (1 1/2 cups), zest from one lemon, salt and pepper, and bake at 350 degrees in a covered casserole or Dutch oven –20 or 30 minutes, till the rice is cooked.  Simple and delicious. You can take it from there and add spices or golden raisins as it’s cooking, or topping with toasted pine nuts  (as Cathy recommended).

Onions are also the perfect accompaniment to roast potatoes, squash, root vegetables, cauliflower….etc.  Just cut an onion into large chunks and chop potatoes and/or other vegetables into smaller chunks. Mix these together with a light coating of olive oil and a good sprinkling of salt, (and herbs or spices if you like) spread the chunks out on a baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees till browned and crispy on the outside. Right now as I write I am roasting some rutabaga this way–with onion, of course. Often I have roasted vegetables with bread and a salad and call it supper. (Or eat up the veggies as they come out of the oven and call it a snack.)

Raw onions marinated in vinegar soften and lose much of their sharpness

Claudia Roden gives a Middle Eastern version for a simple onion relish. Cut 2 mild onions (I like the red ones) in half, slice them into half-moons, and put in a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and add 3 tablespoons of wine vinegar and a tablespoon of dried mint. Let stand for an hour or more before serving, with meat, sandwiches or salads….

So, at the beginning of this futuristic sounding decade of 2010, I want to give thanks to the humble onion, which has been eaten and cultivated since prehistoric times. Onions are mentioned in documents from ancient Egypt more than 5,000 years old.

For New Year’s Eve, I made my family’s traditional celebratory treat: an onion pie.

In the 60s, as I recall, there was some shock value in putting the words “onion” and “pie” together, but now, as everyone is used to quiches and savory tarts, it’s not too hard to grasp the concept.

My father, who grew up in Germany, said it was called “poor man’s pie,” because those who could not afford to make tortes and cakes with fruits, nuts, or chocolate could usually manage the ingredients for onion pie. My mother reconstructed the recipe from my father’s memory and we had it only once a year– on New Year’s Eve.

Over the years, as we started cutting back on fat and cholesterol, the onion pie was very accomodating.  My mother started making the pie crust with oil rather than butter and we sautéed the onions in oil  instead of butter as well. Sometimes  we used only egg whites instead of whole eggs or replaced the sour cream with thick Greek-style yogurt.

Despite depriving the “poor man’s pie” of what riches it once had, the onion pie has adapted gracefully and still tastes great–thanks to those caramelized onions. And it goes perfectly with a glass of champagne.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Onion Pie

• Pastry for one pie shell
• 2 large or 3 medium brown or white onions, peeled
  
• 2 Tablespoons butter or olive oil
  
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream or Greek (strained) yogurt
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Line a 9-inch pie pan with pastry, crimping the edges.

Pre-bake the shell:  Using a fork, prick the bottom of the pastry shell. Chill for ½ hour.  Line the shell with a piece of aluminum foil and fill with dried beans; then bake shell in a preheated 400 degree oven for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven, remove the beans and foil, prick again with a fork, and let cool slightly before filling.

As the shell is being prepared, thinly slice the onions.  Melt the butter or heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet, and sauté the onions until golden brown and soft.  Let cool.

Beat the 2 eggs with the sour cream and pour over the onions.  Stir the mixture together, season with salt and pepper, and pour into the pre-baked crust.  Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes; then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 30 minutes more, or until the top is golden and set.

Serve while warm.