The Fusion of Onions, Beef, and Beer

Preparation

1. Step 1

   Cooking onions slowly and without color produces an aromatic backbone to a dish that is less sweet than one where the sugars in the onion have been allowed to caramelize. To do this successfully, I keep the heat low and stir the pot regularly. This is not something for the impatient cook. They need a watchful eye if they are not to color, and can take up to twenty minutes or so to become a pale, translucent gold. They are ready when each piece is easily squashable between finger and thumb.

   Step 2

   My early casseroles were complex, made up of layers of onion, celery, carrot, bay, thyme, red wine, and meat juices, simply because that was the way I was taught to make them. It is what comes from learning to cook in cooking schools and restaurants rather than at your mother’s knee. It has taken a while for me to appreciate the simpler style of slow-cooked stew such as the Lancashire hotpot and the French pot-au-feu.

   Step 3

   Beer and onions is a merry little friendship. It works in hot dogs, the ploughman’s lunch, and Flemish beef casseroles. The Belgians often use beer instead of wine, stock, or water. As it cooks, it loses its alcohol content but adds a characteristic sweet-sharp note that is difficult to introduce in any other way.