Please vote for my two recipes in the “V Culinary Challenge.” Mine are the Vidalia Onion Cobbler and Vidalia Onions & Colby Jack Fried Empanadas. Both of these recipes came out delicious, so I entered two dishes. You need to “like” the Vidalia page in order to vote for anything. Then select “Vote Now,” scroll down, and vote for both of them. Thanks!

The recipes are below:

Vidalia Onion Cobbler

This recipe is for 2 small cobblers, which can be served quartered in place of bread alongside an entree (steak, stews, barbeque chicken, seafood, vegetarian food, etc.). Serves 4. (Each person is served two of the quarters.) You can easily double the recipe if you want more cobbler! The cobblers are packed full of Vidalia Onions.

I use half whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour because it gives the cobbler a nice nutty flavor without making it too heavy. The pans I used were 5 inch diameter X 1 5/8 inches deep and are marketed for pot pies. The pans are sold in packs of 6, are single use (I might use them repeatedly), and come with plastic lids for transporting your baked pot pies (or in this case, cobblers). You can also use a pan of similar size, or use a larger pan with more ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 cups roughly chopped Vidalia onion

• 1/4 cup organic unbleached whole wheat flour (Non organic is ok)

• 1/8 cup sugar 2 pinches of salt in the batter, plus a little to sprinkle on top when they come out of the oven

• 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 cup milk (I used low-fat but you can use whole milk if you would like.) 1/4 tsp ground cumin 1/8 teaspoon paprika (You can use smoked paprika if you have it on hand.) 6 grinds of black (or mixed) peppercorns from a pepper mill

• 1/2 tsp chopped fresh oregano

• 1/2 stick butter (1/4 stick is for greasing the pans and 1/4 stick for sauteing the onions.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Use 1/4 a stick melted butter to grease the pans.

Sauté the chopped onions in 1/4 a stick of butter. You just want to soften them, not caramelize them (they shouldn’t brown).

Mix the 2 flours, sugar, cumin, paprika, baking powder, 2 pinches salt, and ground pepper. Then mix the milk in. Put the mixture in the small pans, putting 1/2 of the mixture in each. They should be half way to 2/3 filled.

Put a foil lined pan underneath the small pans to catch any overflow since the mixture rises a little. Bake them for only 5 minutes.

Remove them and add 1/2 of the sautéed onions and then 1/2 of the chopped oregano to the top of the mixture in each pan. There should still be a little room in the pan for the mixture to rise (but it is ok if it overflows a little). The reason I start with 5 minutes without the Vidalia onions is to let the cobbler dough set first. Otherwise, the cobbler can be a bit gooey (which isn’t terrible).

Return to oven and bake another 25 minutes. You can make sure they are done with a toothpick or fork by poking the cobbler, and see if it comes away dry (which is what you want). It is stickier near the middle where the onions will congregate, so don’t test the cobbler there. If it isn’t done, return to the oven and check again in 5 minutes.

After removing the cobblers, sprinkle a little salt on top of them.

Vidalia Onion and Colby Jack Fried Empanadas

• 2 and a half cups chopped Vidalia onions

• 2 and a half tablespoons olive oil

• Enough Canola oil to at least 1/2 cover the empanadas in the pan. (Or just use a deep fryer and more oil.)

• Salt and pepper to taste

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (I had a little left at the end)

• One package of empanada dough (Tapas de Empanada).

• 1.5 cups shredded Colby Jack cheese

• 1 beaten egg (I had a lot left over)

Empanada dough: Comes frozen, the disks are separated by plastic, 12 to a package. They make them for frying or baking. Defrost them in the fridge or on a counter, and use them cold. The ones I used (Goya) were for frying. In the past, I’ve also used La Salteña brand (both the frying and the baking) which is owned by General Mills. The baking dough is flaky and layered but sometimes contains animal fat.

Directions:

Saute the chopped onions in the oil. You just want to sweat them (but leave a little texture), you don’t want to brown them. Add the cumin, salt, and pepper, and stir it in. This mixture must cool before you can use it.

Put a little less than 2 tablespoons of the onion mixture, one tablespoon cheese, and a small pinch of fresh thyme leaves to the center of each piece of dough, and put a little egg wash on the inside edge of the dough before sealing them.

Fry them in canola oil until brown on both sides (or use a deep fryer until brown).

-JAY