To Caramelize the Onions Even Better, Marinate Them First.
It’s hard to improve caramelized onions. When it takes so little to make something so delicious, why bother trying at all? Fair enough, but you can make them even better with a quick marinade.
Marinades not only improve the taste of the dish, but are also the initial stage of preparation. Salt, sugar, and acid break down the cellular structure of proteins and vegetables and draw out some of the water they contain, making food more tender. This is exactly what happens when you pickle an onion. Since they are already partially cooked, they will soften a little faster, and if your marinade contains some sugar, they will also brown faster. This means you’ll have to watch them more closely, but the trade-off is caramelized onions at turbo speed.
There is no wrong way to pickle onions , so the possibilities are endless. Any leftover vinaigrette will do, as well as a simple 1-2-3 soy sauce, mirin, and miso punch. Pickling liquid also counts as a marinade: whether you’re making it a classic, seasoning dishes, or opting for a beer-based brine , pickled onions caramelize beautifully and quickly. You can treat caramelized pickled onions like a shortcut to onion jam heaven—it’s already cooked (more or less), so it doesn’t need much encouragement to turn into a sticky, boiled, delicious mass.
You don’t have to come up with a whole marinade. A little salt, sugar, and (optionally) oil will drastically change the texture and flavor of the onion. I no longer cook meat at home , but when I did, my favorite stew and stew trick was to marinate meat overnight in a truck with chopped onions, salt, brown sugar, and crushed garlic cloves. This method practically candied the onion in the meat juice and brine, making it even more tender and delicious, melting in your mouth than you ever imagined.