He said produce

[pecunium]

libertango recently added to his info page.

His choice in quotations is always interesting, often amusing and leads those with wit (as do all strings of quotations) to moderate introspection.

"Produce! Produce! Were it but the pitifullest infinitesimal fraction of a Product, produce it, in God's name! 'Tis the utmost thou hast in thee: out with it, then. Up, up! Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy whole might. Work while it is called Today; for the night cometh, wherein no man can work."
-- Thomas Carlyle

That one struck me. It fits well with the blessed holdovers of my flirtation with Holy Orders (or perhaps those orders were flirting with me), because the Jesuits have a motto, Omnia ad majorem Dei gloriam (All for the greater glory of God). It is meant as a meditation, and a focus. A way to see the presence of the Divine in everything, from digging a ditch, to painting the Sistine Chapel. Each of us does things, we can do them mindfully, or not.

Ok.

Me, I fail in that. There are hours of the day when I merely do, without thinking. And I am, as are we all, heterodox. I tend to do most of my offering up when I am doing something which will go to someone else. The Quakerish part of me (six years living with one will affect how one sees the world) says I am offering it up to the spark of the Divine in everyone. The Catholic part of me says that's narrow minded, as the Divine suffuses more than just those aspects of The Creation which are quick.

One of the times I am most likely to be more than merely doing, by rote, is when I cook. The most mundane aspects of cooking are, to me, infused with awe.

So, todays lesson, a reading from the book of grace notes:

Carmelized onions

Take you some onions, cut them up to the size you want.

In a heavy skillet place some butter, to this add the onions, and set them on a low heat.

Be certain you have a lid, for if one just leave the onions in the skillet those on the top will merely wilt, and those below shall be singed; and burnt, of no good to any man but the gardener; who may use them in his compost.

Leave them be, attending them only with your nose, for the lid will gather up the water the fire drives out; which water will remove the sugars the heat has released and those sugars will blend with the softening onions, and the butter, to a browned and sweet mass. Every so often, when the smell reminds you they are cooking, look on them, and stir the paler ones to the bottom; where they too may go limp, and become brown.

This may then be used in such wise as needed, to line the bottom of a quiche, to dress a steak, to round out a casserole, to be eaten out hand; steaming from the stove, simmered into a reduction, or to such other use as the mind and palate may see fit; be they dominant note, or harmony, the secret is the cover.

Comments

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It's a base dish, for the making of various italian sauces.

At it's plainest

Fat (I use either olive oil or butter, depending on the end result)

Onions

Garlic.

Stop bath

When the onions are where you want them (from just limp, to translucent, to light brown) add the slivered garlic. The thinner the slices the better.

When the garlic is translucent, and perhaps just a little yellowed, add the stop bath.

This can be tomato sauce, white wind, red wine, vinegar, chicken stock, brown stock, broth, even (though I can't imagine why) water. You want to keep the garlic from burning (which is why one can't use a garlic press into a sauté, the liquid burns and the stuff is horrid. I think the reason so many chefs say garlic presses are evil is that people do this. If you want to saute fine garlic, use a knife and mince it, or smash it).

TK