One would think with the start of school realistically that time to experiment with new gluten free recipes would be non existent. HA! I am the kind of girl who responds better under pressure than not. Take for example, I was home all summer and until we got our new grill, I can count on one hand how many times I actually cooked at home (does heating things in the microwave count as cooking?) Saturday night in the midst of trying to figure out what exactly dinner was and if I possessed the right ingredients the kids decided they wished for me to make Aussie Cheese Fries like the ones found at the Outback Steak House and a light went off in my head..Bloomin Onion sounded good..it sounded really good. Problem is said onion is not Gluten Free. The kids were game for trying the onion, the husband was in too..so the question was how the heck does one make the darn thing?
Believe it or not, cutting and making the onion is a lot simpler than you might expect. Make sure you cut the top and not the root ..here are the instructions via foodnetwork.com http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes-and-cooking/how-to-slice-a-bloominrsquo-onion/pictures/index.html
The next step was finding the recipe to make the onion and converting it to Gluten Free. I am a huge fan of Cup 4 Cup flour, it has served me well in almost every recipe I have used it for so I decided it was the right blend to start with. Initially I tried the Food Network recipe but th batter was kind of blah and lacked the same spice that I am used to at the Outback so I increased the cayenne pepper, added some salt, extra black pepper, paprika and added garlic powder as well ..i like to kick things up a notch or 2. Although I did not soak the onion in buttermilk as I would chicken, I read in some comments on the recipe that people find this method helps the onion petal separate easier and stick less. The next thing was coating the onion and shaking out the excess flour before submerging the whole thing into very hot canola oil that I heated in my Le Cruset dutch oven…a little side rant ..I LOVE this pot, it cost a small fortune to buy but it has been the most versatile and user -friendly cookware I ever owned.
I did fry the onion twice because I needed to space out the petals and make sure the batter that was still raw between the petals actually cooked. The results were 2 not incredibly pretty looking onions but they tasted alright and went well with the sauce I made to dip them into..although the sauce was not as good as I expected the next time I try this I will try a spicy aioli I made a few years ago to go with homemade crab cakes…I served this with some chicken wings that I grilled and came up with a great hard lemonade recipe for the adults and fresh Squeezed lemonade for the kids
So..In the end, I am glad I gave this a whirl..this is definitely a recipe for parties or special occasions but I definitely try it again with a few modifications like soaking the onion first.
The Gluten Free Mum 