It’s just two days before the New Year when I will resolve once again to eat five servings of fruit and vegetables daily, but tonight it was culinary sin city…onion rings in beer batter! I served them with a roasted chicken and veges, and while everyone else treated the onion rings as a side dish, they were my main course with a side of beer.
Onion rings are a rare treat since they are rarely gluten-free in a restaurant and a total pain in the neck to prepare. I made the beer batter (Redbridge for my batter, Bard’s for me) and then let it rest for a half hour. Onion slicing, even Vidalia’s, is a tear inducing event and then there is that oil. Right now my house is an olfactory nightmare of hot cooking oil smells and the cover up smell of Pumpkin Spice and Baked Apple scented candles. It will smell like a greasy fry joint for a couple of days, yuck.
The first batch was a bust. The oil wasn’t hot enough and then I tried moving them around with my cooking tongs. Basically, all the batter stuck to the bottom and I had a bunch of naked onions swimming around in oil. I scooped everything out and ate the first batch anyway. The crispy bits of batter were really good. A moment on the lips, forever on the hips…and probably not doing much good for the arteries either.
The second batch wasn’t much better because the oil still wasn’t hot enough, but then it all kicked in to place. Golden brown, hot onion rings gently lifted out of the bubbling oil for a brief pat down on paper towels and then right to the table. It just doesn’t get any better than that.
Right now, the onion rings are sitting like lead but they tasted sweet, crispy and light as one after the other went from mouth to tummy. Good thing that my New Year’s resolution to get 150 minutes of exercise per week starts in a couple of days as well. Happy New Year!
