Cebollitas (grilled green onions)

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JustStarting

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I've just been trying to look up recipes, and I've seen grilling times at medium-high heat ranging from 2 minutes per side to 10 minutes per side to cooking in a foil package for 20 minutes followed by 5-10 minutes per side… All claiming to want the exact same end result, softened onions with some char on them! These can't all be right! Can someone please clarify this situation for me? If it makes a difference, my husband, for whom I would be making them, prefers things firmer and crispier rather than softer, so I'm hoping to avoid total mush.

And another question about making these; can they be done on a George Foreman grill, and if so what's the best way? Thank you! :-)
 
I'm still hoping to be able to make these… Is there ANYONE here who knows which of the gigantic range of cooking times is actually the correct one? :-)
 
I've not made these, but keep in mind that you're looking for a result in the onion, and cooking times are just a guideline to getting there.

Your best bet with this is to start grilling, keep an eye on the char, and press on them a bit with your fingers until they feel the way you want them.
 
I appreciate the thought, but I won't be touching sizzling-hot food half an inch from a grilling surface even once, LOL!
 
CraigC said:
There are things called tongs! :scratchhead:
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He specifically said "press on them a bit with your fingers"… but neither fingers nor tongs would tell me anything, because I have no idea what the finished product is supposed to feel like.

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask which of a bizarrely wide range of cooking times is actually correct for this item! Recipes do typically have cooking times, right, they don't say, "poke it every 30 seconds until you decide it's done"?! Is there no one on this forum who has ever grilled onions before?
 
Green onions come in various sizes, like any other vegetable. If they are thin, they are going to take less time than the fatter ones. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to your question. If you can't manage not to burn yourself when testing for doneness by pressing the upper surface, then maybe you shouldn't be cooking the item in question. The only way to get them to your liking is touch and sight, or making lots of extras of the same size more or less and pulling them out of the pan to test for doneness until they get to your liking.
 
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medtran49 said:
Green onions come in various sizes, like any other vegetable. If they are thin, they are going to take less time than the fatter ones. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to your question. If you can't manage not to burn yourself when testing for doneness by pressing the upper surface, then maybe you shouldn't be cooking the item in question. The only way to get them to your liking is touch and sight, or making lots of extras of the same size more or less and pulling them out of the pan to test for doneness.
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Seconded. I was about to post something along these lines. Its tough for folk who are inexperienced and new to cooking to understand that very often recipes are not a precise guide.

Don't be afraid to make a few mistakes JustStarting. Its happened to all of us.
 
JustStarting said:
Recipes do typically have cooking times, right, they don't say, "poke it every 30 seconds until you decide it's done"?!
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A well-written recipe will absolutely say something along the lines of "grill until the onions are slightly charred and beginning to soften, approximately 6 minutes," and it's incumbent upon the cook to use their senses when cooking; you can't depend on a hard-and-fast time, because the person who wrote the recipe doesn't know how hot your grill is (my grill's medium probably won't equal your grill's medium or the next person's medium), doesn't know how big or small your onions are, etc. You've got to get in there and get to know it, up close and personal. Shake hands with your food! :)

And yes, touching your food is definitely a common cooks' technique for testing for doneness. Go read a handful of articles about techniques for cooking a steak, and you'll invariably find that a basic way to test whether a steak is rare, medium, etc is to press on it with your god-given fingers and feel the level of spring the meat has. Takes a few steaks to get the feel, but once you have it, you have it for life, and when you end up somewhere where no one has a meat thermometer, and they're panicking over the meat, you can say, "Stand back! I know what to do!" - and you'll be the hero of the cookout! :)
 
It is hard to be certain about times when grilling. Touching is a good way to judge. It is how experienced cooks do things. If you are just starting, you need to learn to touch some of your foods, even if they are hot. I do it all the time, and it never leaves a burn on me.


As for advice, I would not cook them "half an inch from the grilling surface." Set up a hot and cool area on your grill, and use indirect heat (cool side) to cook the onions through, then toss them on the HOT side briefly for your char.

I never trust cooking times in recipes (except baking). I use my eyes and fingers, and a good probe thermometer.

Besides, cuts and burns are "rites of passage" for cooks. :smug:

CD
 
I've never grilled/broiled onions. Don't think I ever will. I do fry onions a lot for meat sammys. I fry in oil and with mustard seeds.
And burns on fingers and cuts, comes with territory.

Russ
 
caseydog said:
Touching is a good way to judge. It is how experienced cooks do things.
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I love watching Jacques Pepin cook, because if he's pan-frying something like scallops or the like, when it's time to turn, he'll just reach in with his fingers and turn them really quickly.

I wish I could find the video, because he talked about that. It was a Q&A session with culinary students and someone asked him what his most important tool in the kitchen was, and without even pausing to thing, he enthusiastically said, "My hands!"

Then he went on to elaborate, listing things like choosing the best produce, feeling for doneness, and even killing (at which point he mimed wringing a chicken's neck). That always stuck with me.

Use Your Hands!

Use Your Hands!

 
[Mod.Comment. This thread, has veered off topic into a general discussion about touching food to judge cooking times. It is clear that the OP does not wish to follow this advice]

Here is my suggestion:
  1. Trim the onions and place on the George Foreman grill.
  2. Cook for 4 minutes. Test the white end of the onion by using the tip of a sharp knife, or a fork.
  3. If it is soft, they are cooked. If not, cook for a further minute and test again.
  4. Repeat as necessary.
Unless anyone else has a precise cooking method for cooking green onions using a George Foreman grill please do not add further to this thread. :)
 
morning glory said:
[Mod.Comment. This thread, has veered off topic into a general discussion about touching food to judge cooking times. It is clear that the OP does not wish to follow this advice]

Here is my suggestion:
  1. Trim the onions and place on the George Foreman grill.
  2. Cook for 4 minutes. Test the white end of the onion by using the tip of a sharp knife, or a fork.
  3. If it is soft, they are cooked. If not, cook for a further minute and test again.
  4. Repeat as necessary.
Unless anyone else has a precise cooking method for cooking green onions using a George Foreman grill please do not add further to this thread. :)
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That looks simple enough, thank you! Do the onions need to be turned, or will they be OK just staying put?
 
JustStarting said:
That looks simple enough, thank you! Do the onions need to be turned, or will they be OK just staying put?
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Assuming this is a top and bottom George Foreman grill like the one pictured below, then no need to turn.

40678
 
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