The Most Amazing Red Onion Gratin - Ever!!

You know, a onion is such an underrated vegetable.  Most people, and including myself use onions mostly as a base for cooking, like soups, stews, meat dishes etc for adding flavour. 

Have you ever tried in making an onion dish where the onion is the only key ingredient? Neither have I, until Saturday!  I have always been skeptical about cooking onions as a key ingredient. 

This weekend we were planning to have a braai, and I really wanted something different other than the usual potato bake or pap and salads. I had also a craving for artichokes, I found a really nice recipe - artichoke and spinach bread pudding (which I am still going to make sometime) but then wasn't to sure what else to make with it. 

After browsing the internet for a while I still didn't have any inspiration. I decided to look in my "Cook with Jamie" Recipe Book and saw this recipe, I have been meaning to make it but been putting it off. I decided to give this a try and make an Roasted Pepper and Artichoke salad instead.

I was not dissappointed at all!!!! It was just bursting with flavours!! My sister who is an EXTREMELY fussy eater, who never goes back for more was so disappointed that there wasn't anymore. Its is absolutely mouthwatering. The onions go sweet and caramalizes beautifully, its all cheesy and rich with flavours that just burst in your mouth. This recipe does the humble onion  so much JUSTICE!! Its so simple, with so few ingredients. The only thing with this recipe it requires the usage of Gruyere Cheese, which is rather pricey in South Africa, but all you need is 50g - I promise you - You will not regret every cent spent on this amazing cheese. 

Enough of me jabbering - Here is the recipe: (This is enough to give a generous portion to 4 people!)

INGREDIENTS:

4 medium red onions , peeled and quartered 

sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

8 sprigs fresh thyme , leaves picked

2 garlic cloves , peeled and sliced

1 glass white wine - I used a Chardonnay

4 tablespoons creme fraiche - however my local supermarket did not have in stock - and was not in the mood driving around looking for creme fraiche, so I used Sour Cream instead and it worked really well. Plus it is much cheaper. :)

50 g Gruyere cheese , grated (The piece I bought was just over 100g which i used so if you can spare some extra by all means don't be shy

50 g fresh grated parmesan cheese

few knobs of butter

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 200°C 

Scatter a few knobs of butter at the bottom of an A4 ovenproof dish 

Break the onion quarters apart to give you little pretty purple "petals" and place in the dish

Drizzle with a little olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and toss in the thyme and garlic.

Mix well, add white wine  and cover tightly with two layers of tinfoil - the shiny side on the inside

Bake for 40 - 45 minutes, then remove tinfoil, and put back in oven for 15 minutes until slightly golden and it caramalizes abit.

Stir in creme fraiche (or sour cream) and sprinkle all the cheese

Turn oven down to 180°C and put back in oven until cheese is golden and melted, that will be about another 15 minutes.

You can eat right away, or cool it down and flash it under the grill when the guests arrive.

All I can say is: "WOW"!!!! This dish is incredible and amazing. My family ended eating it up before they even completed dishing up..