Baked Onion Rings with Bacon Beer Batter

One of my favorite things in the kitchen is to find oven-baked versions of foods that are traditionally fried. Once you get the hang of battering and breading something tasty, then spraying it with oil and baking till it’s crisp, it’s amazing how many reduced-guilt foods you can make. This recipe, for baked onion rings with a bacon-beer batter, is a good example.


As with most food that is breaded and baked, the recipe itself is easy; the steps for coating the food, while simple, need to be done with some care.


In general, breading food (the onion rings, in this case) starts with coating it lightly with flour, dipping it in batter, then pressing it into the breading, all done in a way that a) coats the food and b) doesn’t make a big mess on the counter, your hands, or anywhere else. If you’re doing a few larger food items (such as fish filets), applying the coating is easy, since there’s not much opportunity for your batter to mix with your breading and turn it into a pasty mess that sticks to your hands but not to the food. With onion rings, however, you’re coating a large number of small food items, so batter messing up your dry breadcrumbs can be a real problem. Through trial-and-error (mostly error), I’ve found it’s your hands, not the onion rings, that drop too much batter into the breading. There are a couple of ways to deal with this.


The first is to have the flour and the breading in sealable plastic bags. The other way is having them in bowls, and – here’s the key – using a spoon to move the battered rings into the breading and press them into the breadcrumbs. (For either approach, the batter is in a bowl.) Regardless of which method you use, I’ve found it’s still a good idea to reserve some of your breading mixture at first, and add it to the bag or bowl now and then during the process to help keep the breadcrumbs as close to dry as possible, which is the key to making this work.


This recipe yields 3 to 4 servings. (One onion may not sound like much, but if it’s really a large one you might be surprised at how many rings it makes. The rings on the platter in the photo all came from one large onion.)


Let’s make some tasty onion rings...
Peel the onion, slice it into ¼” thick slices, and separate slices into rings. Discard the smallest inner pieces or store for use in another recipe.


Cook 2 slices of turkey bacon in a pan or microwave oven. When the bacon is done, mince it and set the pieces aside.


Combine 1-1/2 cups each of Panko and plain bread crumbs. (You can also use just plain bread crumbs, but I like the mix of textures you get from combining them with the Panko.) Put half of the mixture in a 1 gallon zip-lock bag or a bowl. Set the other half of the mixture aside, and add it to the zip-lock bag or bowl as needed to keep the breadcrumbs dry while you’re breading the onion rings later. Place 1 cup of all-purpose flour in a bowl or 1-quart zip-lock bag.


Prepare the batter by combining 12 ounces of beer, 2 egg-substitute eggs or beaten regular eggs, and ½ cup of all-purpose flour. Whisk until a well-mixed batter forms. Whisk in additional flour as needed (up to another ½ cup) until the batter is thick enough to stick to the onions. Add the minced bacon to the batter and mix well.


Place the onion rings, a few at a time, in the flour bag or bowl to coat them lightly. Dip them one at a time into the batter, making sure some bacon is included in the batter that’s on the onion ring. Let the excess batter drain off until the onion ring is still coated but not dripping, then place in the ring in the breadcrumb bag or bowl and coat by shaking (if using a bag) or by pressing with a spoon (if using a bowl). If necessary to coat the ring, repeat the batter and breadcrumb steps. Place each coated ring on a baking sheet lined with parchment. (Depending on the size of your baking sheet, you may need two.)


Put the baking sheet(s) with the onion rings in your refrigerator to rest for about 30 minutes. While the rings are resting, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and prepare the dipping sauce by mixing the following ingredients and refrigerating until ready to serve: 1/2 cup reduced fat mayonnaise; juice of ½ lemon; 2 teaspoons of brown mustard; ½ tablespoon fresh or prepared horseradish; and ½ teaspoon of paprika. (When serving, sprinkle a little additional paprika on the dip as a garnish.)


After the breaded onion rings have finished resting, spray them with cooking spray and bake for about 25 minutes until the coating is crisp. (Turn the baking sheets half-way and swap their positions for more even baking.) If you’re not sure if they’re done, grab a sample and give it a taste. (Even if you are sure they’re done, grab one for a taste anyway. You deserve it!) Season them with salt to taste and serve hot, with the dipping sauce on the side. And try to finish them the first day; leftovers can be reheated the next day, but when stored and reheated they lose a good bit of their delicious crunch.
So there it is: beer, bacon and onion rings. What’s not to enjoy?


If you prefer a cookbook-style, notebook-ready copy of this recipe, say the word and I’ll send it along.


See you next week with another easy, fun recipe. Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Order in the Court: A Non-Traditional Court Bouillon for Poaching Fish and Vegetables

Greetings, faithful readers. Before we get to this week's recipe, one I hope you'll find different and interesting, there's a bit of news to share. Kissing the Cook is now linked onto Facebook! Just sign on, look up Kissingthecook Recipes (or search for the e-mail address kissthecookben@ymail.com), and, if you like, send a friend request. I promise it will be accepted. :-)


And now for our regularly scheduled recipe.


A classic (a polite word for "old"), tasty, and healthy way to prepare fish or vegetables is to poach them in a court bouillon.  Fortunately for us all, this wonderful and simple cooking method is making a comeback.


Court bouillon is quick and easy to put together. (In fact, it's a French term for “quick broth.”) There’s a modest bit of cooking time involved, but the broth doesn’t require very much attention while this is going on. And poaching itself cooks the meat or vegetables in just a few minutes which, for most of us hurried souls, adds to the method’s appeal. Court bouillon ingredients can vary from cook to cook, but all follow a basic structure of acid, water, herbs, and usually some vegetables. The acid is typically something like dry white wine or a good quality vinegar.


Being from the part of New Jersey which the locals usually refer to without the “New,” I was inspired to create my own take on all of this that I call, “Hudson County Court” Bouillon. The recipe follows. You’ll see that one of the key elements here is that the dry white wine is replaced by a good quality beer. (This is Jersey, after all.) To offset the bitterness that sometimes comes from cooking down beer, I’ve also replaced the water with vegetable stock.


And although it's not the usual way to use court bouillon, it also seemed to me that after the poaching has infused it with the essence of the cooked fish or vegetables, the remaining liquid could be turned into a very nice gravy-type sauce that would tie the whole dish together. As described below, a few additional ingredients do the job.


So all rise: Hudson County Court Bouillon is now in session. Judge for yourself. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)


To make enough to poach, and have sauce for, three or four servings of fish or vegetables, begin by combining the following in a pan:  8 ounces of beer; 1-1/2 cups vegetable stock; 1 teaspoon dried parsley; 1 medium onion, chopped, with about 2 tablespoons set aside for making the sauce later); 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon whole peppercorns, 1 bay leaf; 1 teaspoon dried thyme; 1 stalk celery, chopped; and 1 carrot, chopped. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer it uncovered for about 20 minutes. When it’s done simmering, strain the mixture (discarding the solids) and return the liquid to the pan.


Bring the liquid to a boil, add the fish or vegetables to be poached, and lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer until the fish or vegetables have finished cooking. How long this takes depends on what your’re cooking, of course, but it should generally be only a few minutes, so keep an eye on it. When the fish or vegetables have finished cooking, remove them from the liquid and set them aside while you make the sauce.


To make the sauce, add the butter substitute, flour, and the 2 tablespoons of chopped onion you set aside earlier to the liquid, adding the flour slowly and whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Add the honey, then continue to cook over low heat until the sauce is the desired thickness, continuing to whisk constantly.


You’re done! All that’s left is to top the fish or vegetables with the sauce and serve warm.


As always, for a notebook-ready cookbook-style copy of this recipe, or any other recipe from this site, just post a comment asking for it (or send me an e-mail) and I’ll get it right out to you.


See you next week! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Pop up Ping Pong!

I came across this awesome place when walking to the tube yesterday. It's on Marshall street which is just off Carnaby St and is only around for one more week! Ping Pong for free... it doesn't get much better than this! Perfect Friday night fun - plus they serve beer!

Hampton Court Beer and Jazz festival

If you are a beer and jazz lover or even just one of the above, then this is the perfect day out for you (27th - 30th August - bank holiday weekend baby yeah!). The man and me went to this last year and had a great time, so we decided to try out the same festival in Greenwich during May of this year. The line up was great, the beer was great, but the weather was awful! It rained incessantly and was far too cold to drink beer comfortably (but we managed!). I fashioned makeshift socks out of arm warmers and the man made us a civilised seating area out of beer crates in one of the marquees! Think we will stick to the Hampton Court August slot next year… a much safer bet. Check out the line up and the selection of 80+ beers here.


Can you see Canary Wharf in the background? Oh i love Canary Wharf!