Chef Thomas
Braised Celery with Butter
Celery braised long and slow in butter and good stock until it turns soft, silky, and almost sweet, the kind of quiet side dish that makes people ask what you did to it.
Culinary Explorer
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Baked Onions with Cream and Thyme
Created by Chef Thomas
Whole onions surrendered to a low oven with cream and thyme until they collapse into something golden, sweet and yielding, the kind of side dish that quietly upstages everything else on the table.
Side Dishes
British
Dinner Party
Comfort Food
15 min
Active Time
1 hr 15 min cook•1 hr 30 min total
Yield4 servings
There's a dish my mother used to make in the cold months that I'd forgotten about for years, until I found a line in the notebook: onions, cream, thyme, slow oven, Tuesday. That was enough. The smell came back before the method did.
Whole onions, peeled and halved, laid cut-side down in a dish with cream poured around them and a few sprigs of thyme tucked in between. Then a low oven and the better part of an hour. That's it. The cream reduces and thickens around the onions as they soften, catching the edges with gold. The thyme gives up its oils into the cream. The kitchen smells like the kind of evening where nobody is in a rush to leave the table.
This is a dish that has fallen out of fashion, which is a shame, because it belongs beside a roast chicken or a piece of simply cooked fish, or, honestly, on its own with good bread to mop up the cream. The onions go from sharp and firm to sweet and yielding, almost jammy at their centres, and the cream around them is somewhere between a sauce and a gratin. It asks very little of you. An hour of patience. A few good onions. The willingness to believe that something this simple can be worth the plate it sits on.
I've been making it again every few weeks since I rediscovered it. I wrote it down properly this time. Some things shouldn't be forgotten twice.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
onions
Quantity
6 medium
peeled and halved through the root
unsalted butter
Quantity
30g
double cream
Quantity
250ml
chicken or vegetable stock
Quantity
150ml
fresh thyme
Quantity
6-8 sprigs
bay leaves
Quantity
2
garlic
Quantity
1 fat clove
lightly crushed
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
nutmeg (optional)
Quantity
a grating
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| onionspeeled and halved through the root | 6 medium |
| unsalted butter | 30g |
| double cream | 250ml |
| chicken or vegetable stock | 150ml |
| fresh thyme | 6-8 sprigs |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| garliclightly crushed | 1 fat clove |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| black pepper | to taste |
| nutmeg (optional) | a grating |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide ovenproof dish or cast iron skillet, roughly 25-28cm
- •Aluminium foil
- •Large spoon for basting
Instructions
- 1
Brown the onions
Set the oven to 170C/150C fan. Melt the butter in a wide ovenproof dish or skillet over a medium heat. When it foams, lay the onion halves cut-side down in the pan. Leave them alone. You want a proper golden crust on the flat side, which takes five to seven minutes, sometimes longer depending on your hob. Don't move them. Don't peek. When you can smell caramelisation, a toasty sweetness rising from the pan, they're ready to turn. Flip them over gently.
Choose onions that feel heavy for their size and are roughly the same width. They'll cook at the same rate and you won't be chasing stragglers at the end. - 2
Add cream, stock and herbs
Tuck the thyme sprigs and bay leaves between the onions. Drop the crushed garlic clove in somewhere it won't be lost. Pour the cream and stock around the onions, not over them. You want the cut, golden tops still exposed. Season generously with salt, pepper, and a grating of nutmeg. The liquid should come about halfway up the onions. If it doesn't, your dish is too large, or you need a splash more stock. Trust your eye.
- 3
Bake slowly
Cover the dish loosely with foil and slide it into the oven. Bake for forty-five minutes. The onions will start to soften and slump into the cream, and the kitchen will begin to smell like thyme and warm butter. After forty-five minutes, remove the foil. The cream will have reduced slightly and started to take on colour at the edges.
If your dish is cast iron or heavy ceramic, it will hold heat well and the onions will cook more evenly. A thin baking dish works, but check it sooner. - 4
Finish uncovered
Return the dish to the oven, uncovered, for another twenty-five to thirty minutes. Spoon some of the cream over the onion tops once or twice during this time. You're looking for the cream to reduce to something thick and golden, almost sauce-like, clinging to the onions rather than pooling. The onion edges should be catching colour and the centres should yield completely to a knife, no resistance at all. If they're still firm, give them more time. There's no hurrying this.
- 5
Rest and serve
Let the dish sit for five minutes out of the oven. The cream will settle and thicken a fraction more. Serve the onions straight from the dish, spooning the thyme-scented cream over and around them. A few leaves of fresh thyme scattered on top if you like, but it doesn't need much. The onions have done the work. We're only making dinner.
Chef Tips
- •The onion variety matters more than you'd think. Standard brown onions work well here, their sweetness concentrates as they bake. White onions are sharper and take longer to mellow. Red onions look beautiful but can turn an unfortunate shade of grey in cream. Stick with brown.
- •Don't skip the initial browning. Those five minutes in butter give the onions a caramelised base that carries through the whole dish. Without it, you have soft onions in cream. With it, you have something deeper, richer, worth writing down.
- •This wants to sit beside something simple. A roast chicken, a piece of grilled fish, a few lamb chops. Or serve it on its own with crusty bread and let the cream-soaked bread be the real meal. I've done that more often than I'd admit.
- •The garlic should be gentle here, a background presence. One clove, lightly crushed so it gives its flavour to the cream without announcing itself. If you can identify the garlic when you taste the dish, there's too much.
Advance Preparation
- •The onions can be browned and arranged in the dish with cream and herbs up to six hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate, then bring back to room temperature for twenty minutes before baking.
- •Once baked, they sit happily in a low oven, loosely covered, for up to thirty minutes while you finish the rest of dinner. The cream will thicken a touch more, which does no harm.
- •Leftovers, if there are any, reheat gently with a splash of stock to loosen the cream. They won't look as pretty, but they'll taste just as good folded into a warm salad or spooned over toast.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 250g)
Calories
425 calories
Total Fat
36 g
Saturated Fat
22 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
13 g
Cholesterol
100 mg
Sodium
590 mg
Total Carbohydrates
23 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
11 g
Protein
4 g
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