Sous Vide Whole Roasted Onions with Bacon Onion Jam

Begin by crisping up your bacon either in the Oven using the Bacon 101 recipe, or if using a pan, do a cold start and add a little water to your bacon. The addition of water helps the bacon fat to render faster. When the bacon is crisp, take it out of the pan and set aside to cool. Save the bacon fat and use it to flavor the caramelized onions.

To assemble the caramelized onions, take your diced onions and combine with the rendered bacon fat, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. Add the thyme and the garlic and season with salt and pepper. Make sure to mix the ingredients well. Spread this mixture evenly onto the supplied baking sheet. Note that it will look very full but as it cooks, the onions will lose a lot of its moisture. Cook in the Oven for about an hour and a half, checking in every 15 - 20 minute increments or so. When checking, open the Oven door to allow moisture to escape and stir the onions well. Spread the onions evenly in the pan before you put it back in the Oven. When it reaches a browning stage, try to pull the onions away from the rear heating element to prevent that edge from burning. The caramelized onions are done when it is cooked down and are a deep golden brown.

Take the sheet pan out of the oven. At this point, stir in the crisp bacon pieces and allow the bacon to mix its flavors with the onion using residual heat. At this point, taste the caramelized onions and season to your liking with salt and pepper or add even more brown sugar. Set aside until cool enough to handle.

When the caramelized onions and bacon mixture is cool enough to handle, place in a food processor and puree until it achieves a smooth and spreadable consistency. Make sure to scrape the sides of the food processor down to ensure there are no onion or bacon chunks. Keep this mixture in a sealed jar in refrigerator and reheat prior to using.

Take your whole onions and cut off the tops and root part. Set them on a sheet pan and place a tablespoon of whole butter on top.

Cook the whole onions Sous Vide in the Oven for 4 hours. At the end of the cook cycle, try to check the tenderness of the onion by piercing it with a toothpick or a cake tester. By this time, the onions should be very tender.

When done, take the onions out of the Oven and leave the door open for about 5 minutes to let all the moisture escape.

Set the Oven to 400F 0% Humidity using the top and bottom elements. When the Oven is ready, place the whole onions back in until browned and caramelized on top, about 10-15 minutes.

To serve, warm up the bacon jam and place a dollop onto a serving plate, one for each roasted onion. Add a little bit of balsamic cream onto each dollop before “nesting” the roasted onions on top. Garnish with thyme sprigs and a little drizzle of olive oil. Enjoy!