ArcaMax

Three Months In

I’ve lived in Chattanooga, TN for three months now. I thought I’d chronicle some of my observations.

Friendly

I always thought Chicago was a friendly town, but it pales in comparison to this place. The best part is it’s not an ooey-gooey fake friendly. The folks here are genuinely happy to talk and share their experiences.

Our restaurant strategy when we first got here was to sit at the bar and eat rather than get a table. That way we could pick the brain of the bartender. A bonus has been that when people sitting at the bar hear that we don’t have a southern accent they jump into the conversation. They ask why we moved, how long we’ve been here and what can they do for us. I have more business cards, emails and phone numbers in three months than I thought I’d get in a year. Some folks are even becoming friends but those who are not recognize us when they see us again and the conversations just take off from where we left off. This is so refreshing! Life in a new place can be lonely. Not in Chattanooga...

Read the full column at PlanZDiet.com

Caramelized Onion Pie

The key to the dreaminess of this onion pie is to caramelize the onions. The key to caramelizing onions is to take your time. Caramelizing onions makes the natural sugars in the onion come to the forefront. No more bold onion taste. Just dreamy flavor. Serve this for breakfast, lunch or dinner. We love it as a tasty entrée item. You can serve it with a salad just like a quiche. It can also be served warm or room temperature. Makes a great buffet item.

Servings: Serves 4 as entrée. More as a side or a buffet item.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cups thinly sliced onions. You can use white, or regular yellow. I used white onion, red onion and added some chives at the end. Don’t use sweet onions (Vidallia). It sounds counter-intuitive, but they don’t caramelize as well. Red onions caramelize well but take it easy on those or you will be serving purple pie.
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup milk
3 large eggs
grated sea salt and pepper to taste
2 cups of grated gruyere cheese, divided
one 9-inch pie crust, prebaked in a pie pan

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat until it shimmers. Add the onions and sauté, stirring periodically, until caramelized (approximately 45 minutes). If you’re using chives, don’t add those yet or they’ll burn. I start off by setting the burner on medium. I stir the onions every five to eight minutes. If the onions start to stick at all, just add a bit more olive oil and stir them around. You don’t want the onions to brown too fast. Just take your time. Mine don’t start to even brown a bit until after 15 minutes. After they just start to brown, I turn the burner down lower. Remove the onions from the heat when they are medium brown and have shrunken down. If you’re using chives, quickly saute them for one minute in a splash of olive oil.

Whisk together the cream, milk, eggs, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. You can do with a whisk or just run your mixer for a minute. Add the onions, chives and 1.5 cups of the cheese and stir to combine. Make sure they are not all stuck together. You might have to pull at them with a fork or tong to break up the cheese and make sure the onions get distributed. Pour the mixture evenly into the baked pie crust. You might need to use a fork again to make sure the mixture is spread across the whole crust. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the pie.

Bake in the preheated oven until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40 to 45 minutes. If the crust starts to get too brown, cover it with foil. Remove the pie from the oven to cool. Let the pie cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola