“They are like an oniony bouquet of spring and nothing you could add would improve them”
Bee Wilson, in Why Spring Onions Deserve Their Name, in The Financial Times
One of the best ways to eat spring onions is to cook them in the way of the southern American cook, Edna Lewis. Lewis cooks hers in a frying pan, but I do mine on a griddle.
As Bee Wilson notes, in the quote above, just the onions themselves and butter are all that’s required. But I sometimes add a grind or two of black pepper.
Clarissa Hyman, writing in Food and Travel Magazine, serves hers with griddled swordfish, but spring onions will go with every type of fish, as well as steak and also with kidneys. Hyman serves hers with a tahini sauce composed of “five tablespoons of tahini with the juice of a lemon, 9 tablespoons of chopped parsley, a grated clove of garlic and a pinch of sugar.”
Equally, griddled spring onions go well with manchego or with blue cheese. Mix together with some croutons and chorizo and a sherry vinegar dressing.
Or you can make quite a serious meal of them: Fry, rather than griddle the spring onions, then make a cup (240ml) of stock (chicken or vegetable, include the juice of a lemon – save the zest) and add two teaspoons of Dijon mustard. Add to the pan, bring to a simmer. Reduce for about five minutes. Add 150g/1 cup frozen peas. Continue to reduce a bit until the peas are cooked through. Put on an attractive platter and scatter over mint and lemon zest and about 100g/3 oz feta.
Here is the method for griddling spring onions:
Griddled spring onions
Serves – 4
Ingredients
- 24 spring onions
- 4 tbsps/knobs of butter
- Freshly ground black pepper – optional
Instructions
- Trim the roots, and cut off any leathery, rough tops of the spring onions.
- Wash the spring onions, but don’t dry them as the droplets that cling on help with a steaming process.
- Heat the butter in a medium-sized griddle pan until it begins to foam.
- Fit the onions snugly into the pan, all in one layer.
- Cover, either with a lid, or with foil, for three minutes. Turn, cover again, and cook for another couple of minutes. The white bottom will have turned golden and a little crispy. The green top will be soft and shiny.
