Caramelized Onion and Horseradish Pork Sandwiches

As I mentioned in another post, I had a stack of recipes calling for leftover roasted pork loin, and this one sounded like the most savoury of the lot. So after doubling up on the meat to have enough to get me through my leftover experiment, I went ahead and attempted this sandwich recipe.  This calls for caramelizing onions, which is not always an easy task.  The trick is to cook over low heat for a long time, so you don't end up with fajita-style onions that are charred.  You want to get the sugars in the onion to caramelize without burning.  Believe me when I tell you that this requires patience, but that it is worth the effort.

Do yourself a favor on this one - go find good bread.  There's no point in caramelizing onions for an hour if you're going to use Wonder bread.  Though I suppose they're going bankrupt anyway, so maybe when you find this recipe you won't even know what I'm talking about.  Anyway, a good crusty French boule or Italian loaf will do the trick.

Serve with something fried, like these mushrooms, and send your taste buds on vacation

Caramelized Onion and Horseradish Pork Sandwiches

from Cooking Light, September 2004

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 cups vertically sliced onion (about 1 1/4 pounds)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons reduced-fat sour cream
• 2 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
• 1 (8-ounce) loaf French bread, halved lengthwise
• 1 cup torn red leaf lettuce leaves
• 1 1/2 cups thinly sliced roasted pork loin (about 8 ounces)

This gives you a feel for how thinly I sliced the onions - about 1/4"

A pork loin, going out with dignity - by way of the electric knife

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Not high, probably not low either but it's too late now. Add onion and next 6 ingredients (through garlic) to pan; cook 30 minutes or until onions are golden, stirring occasionally. This took me an hour of careful monitoring, but if you're really good I bet you can do it in 30. See my time lapse photos below to get a feel for what's going on.  Remove from heat; let cool.

Let's take a journey through caramelizing these bad boys.  This is about 2 minutes in.

14 minutes in.  Keep stirring!

27 minutes in.  Things should start sticking a bit more by now, so you need to keep monitoring.

52 minutes in.  Probably could have stopped by now, but I was still cooking so I let them go a bit more.

59 minutes after starting.  No black bits in the onions = win.

Toast the sliced bread. Warm sliced pork loin if you prefer a hot sandwich. Combine sour cream, mayonnaise, and horseradish; spread evenly over cut side of bottom half of bread. Arrange lettuce (I omitted this - too healthy) over the now mayonnaise-laden bread half (the mayo will prevent the bread from getting soggy). Arrange onions and roasted pork over lettuce. Top with other half of bread. Cut stuffed loaf into 4 pieces and serve.  If you want to get really crazy, add some gruyere cheese and feel your arteries clog in one last meat- and cheese-laden blowout.  Imagine a ham and cheese sandwich on steroids, because that's what you'll end up with.