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Boiled Onions, Rice Border
Wash 1 cup rice, boil it in plenty of boiling salted water 25 minutes. Drain and steam for 10 minutes, then add 2 tablespoons melted butter, salt and pepper to taste. Press into a buttered ring mold set. When onions are ready (boil medium-sized ones in boiling salted water till tender but not broken), season them with butter, salt and pepper. Unmold the rice onto plate, pour onions inside the ring. Garnish with finely minced parsley.
A simple composed side: rice pressed into a ring mold, turned out, and filled with buttered boiled onions. The whole thing succeeds or fails on how firmly the rice packs.
- Pack the rice hardThe border only holds its shape if the hot rice is pressed into the mold with real force, using the back of a buttered spoon. Loose rice will slump the moment it is turned out.
- Rice type and timingRice timing -- Twenty-five minutes of open boiling is longer than modern long-grain rice generally needs; most is tender in 12 to 18 minutes, so taste a grain before draining rather than trusting the clock.
- The steaming stepAfter draining, return the rice to the dry pot over low heat with a cloth or lid, or set the colander over simmering water. Ten minutes drives off surface moisture, which is what lets the grains cling without being wet.
- Onion size"Medium-sized" means about 2 inches across, peeled and left whole, with the root end trimmed but not cut into. Boiling takes 20 to 30 minutes; test with a skewer and lift them out the moment they yield, since a minute too long and they collapse into the water.
- Ring moldA 1-quart ring mold or savarin pan holds this amount. A loaf pan or a bowl with a tumbler set in the center will substitute; butter it generously and warm it first so the rice does not stick.
- UnmoldingLet the packed rice rest 5 minutes, run a thin knife around both edges, invert the serving plate over the mold and turn the two together in one motion.
- Seasoning the onionsDrain the onions thoroughly before buttering them, or the liquid will pool on the plate and soften the rice ring. A little of the butter can go on the rice border as well for gloss.
- YieldOne cup of raw rice serves four to six as a vegetable course alongside a roast. The recipe does not state how many onions to use; judge by what will fill the ring.
Molded borders of rice, potato or hominy were a common device in American and English household cookery from the late nineteenth century into the 1930s: they gave a plain boiled vegetable the look of a made dish without additional cost. The ring mold answered to the French bordure, where a wall of starch was used to contain a ragout or a creamed filling at the table. Onions boiled whole and buttered were a winter staple in the northern states, keeping in the cellar long past the fresh season.