No More Tears: The 1015 proves a sweet alternative

Onions have a way of getting into just about everything.

They go great on hamburgers, and grilling them with fajitas gives them a bold and energetic flavor.

They’re also good with pot roasts, salads, and surprisingly enough, carrot cake.

While putting onion in a carrot cake may sound odd, it isn’t if you’re talking about the 1015 sweet onion, said Martha Noell, president and chief executive officer of the Weslaco Chamber of Commerce.

Noell was getting preparing for the 18th annual Texas Rio Grande Valley Onion Festival March 24 at Weslaco City Park, 300 N. Airport Drive. The annual event celebrates the creation of the 1015 onion in the 1980s by Leonard Pike, a horticulture professor at Texas A&M University. The onion, named for its recommended planting time of Oct. 15, has revolutionized the way people use onions.

”It’s a sweet onion, it’s not hot,” Noell said. “I like them baked in the microwave with just a little bit of butter, salt and pepper, sliced across the top like a baked potato.”

So extraordinary are the possibilities for this milder, sweeter onion, that the annual festival holds an onion recipe contest each year.

Jody Martin, now 11, has won numerous awards the past several years in the onion contest. One of her award-winning entries is for cheesecake onion tarts. The recipe calls for cheesecake pudding, chocolate tart shells, strawberries, blueberries, mandarin oranges and, last but not least, half a cup of 1015 onions sautéed in butter.

She also uses the sweet onion in her award-winning onion carrot cake. She got the recipe from her grandmother, also named Jody, but the youngster came up with the idea to add onions when she was preparing for the contest. Her contest entry was the first time she’d added onions to the recipe, which also calls for fresh carrots, eggs, flour, vanilla and crushed pineapple, and it took a prize.

Her mother, Mary Martin, says the idea of desserts with onions is still something of a novelty, but it works.

“It just doesn’t have that bitterness, that strong onion flavor, that some of the stores, especially now, all the onions that are coming have been in storage for such a long time, and they have that strong onion taste to them,” she said. “Texas 1015s have a sweetness; they have a lot more moisture in them.”

The sweet onion, she said, gives more moisture to desserts like carrot cake. The onion taste bakes off in desserts and leaves no strong bitter flavor. She would never use another variety of onion in desserts, she said.

Mary Martin teaches family and consumer sciences at Weslaco High School. The week prior to the onion festival, her students were working in the labs — kitchens — to make beef fajitas with peppers and 1015 onions.

“They’re also going to do a baked onion ring,” she said. “Instead of fried onion rings, we are trying to teach them healthier ways. It’s a great alternative. Dip them in crunched up corn flakes and an egg batter, and bake them in the oven. It’s different, it’s good for the kids.”

Many people have turned the onion into a staple of just about everything they cook.

“There isn’t anything I do specifically with it by itself,” said Sherri Cherry, 56. “But I used it in all my casseroles and for seasoning anything.”

She loves using the 1015 in a recipe called college casserole that has been in her family for generations. She layers the hamburger meat, potatoes, carrots and onions, making several layers to create a tasty dish. After pouring a mushroom soup over the dish, she tops it with cheese and bakes it.

“It’s an inexpensive and hearty meal that my mom always fixed and that I always fixed for my family,” she said. “You never have that strong taste you can get sometimes in onions that stay with you too much, and all you can taste is a strong onion. You can always count on them (1015) to be just sweet enough to add what you need to a dish.”

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Travis Whitehead covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4452. For this and other local stories, visit www.themonitor.com.

Mini Onion Bites

5 slices of bacon

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

2 Tbsp. milk

2 eggs

½ c. shredded Swiss cheese

¾ c. chopped 1015 onion

Mini tart shells

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Place bacon in a large skillet and cook over medium high heat until crisp and evenly browned. Drain, crumble and set aside. Place the cream cheese, milk and eggs in a medium bowl and beat until smooth with an electric mixer. Stir in Swiss cheese and onion. Sprinkle bacon into bottom of tart shells; fill shell with cream cheese mixture. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until filling is set. Sprinkle with remaining bacon and lightly press into filling. Remove from pan and serve warm.

— Jody Martin, 1st place appetizer, Youth Division, 2005 Onion Recipe contest

Onion Rissotto Rice with Chicken & Chipotle Cream Sauce

1 large 1015 onion or 2 cups diced 1015

2 c. Arborio rice

4 c. boneless cooked chicken breasts (diced)

2 stalks of green onions

½ c. white wine

Brown rice, add stock, onions, diced chicken, white wine. Bring to boil, then simmer.

Sauce:

1 chipotle pepper

1 c. heavy cream

Pour heavy cream in a saucepan, bring to a broil, add pepper and simmer to desired thickness.

— Joe Rodriguez, 1st place main dish, professional division, The Waterfall Grill at Santa Tierra, 2005 Onion Recipe contest

Cheesecake Onion Tarts

2 boxes instant cheesecake pudding

4 c. whipping cream

½ c. 1015 onion, sautéed in butter

chocolate tart shells

strawberries

blueberries

mandarin oranges

Prepare pudding mix with 4 cups of whipping cream. Add onions to pudding mixture. Fill chocolate shells with cheesecake mixture. Garnish tops of tarts with sliced strawberries, blueberries and mandarin oranges. Serve chilled.

— Jody Martin, 1st place dessert, youth division, 2005 Onion Recipe contest