Red Wine Vinegar Mushroom & Onion

Sometimes stir-fry gets monotonous.

Chop, oil, fry, stir, sprinkle with salt. Where’s the fun in that?

Trick question. There is no fun.

But one rainy day found me standing in front of the vinegar section in the supermarket, wondering if a new type of vinegar was the missing piece in my life.

Balsamic vinegar was too Italian and wouldn’t fit in with the Asian sauce clique in my kitchen. White vinegar was an old friend that had overstayed its welcome. Beer vinegar had the word “beer” in it and I wasn’t sure I could make it through the checkout line without being humiliated by the classic “You’re not over 21” phrase.

So I tried red wine vinegar, because at least if I were humiliated, red wine would sound classier than beer.

At first, the soy sauce alpha male bristled at the introduction of the new kid. The white vinegar got a little jealous. The cooking wine was disgusted by its red-colored second cousin, once removed.

But that’s okay, because the red wine vinegar made unlikely friends with two little vegetables.

The rest was edible history.

Red Wine Vinegar Mushroom and Onion

Notes: You could experiment with other types of vinegar, but it just doesn’t give the same wine-ish, sweet and sour taste. Alternatively, you can use real red wine plus white vinegar. Still not the same though.

Taste & Texture: The red wine vinegar is complex. It’s like Luxembourg, but it borders sweet, sour, and red wine-y instead of Germany, France, and Belgium. It’s quite a lovely combination, and the crisp onion and mushrooms provide a solid neutral base for that flavor.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. mushrooms
  
• 2 yellow or red onions (White onions are too pungent.)
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  
• 1 tbsp sugar
  
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
  
• dash of salt
  

Steps:

1. Chop up everything nice.

Today was a good camera day.

2. Cook onions until somewhat wilted. Add a dash of sugar while you’re at it.

This was on another day, when I did a really good job of cutting up the onions into strips.

3. Throw in mushrooms.

They’re not enjoying this.

4. Then add everything else.

Vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, etc.

5. Cook until the onions are translucent and everything is nicely wilted.

I didn’t cook it until the onions were translucent, though, because I just wanted to eat. 

I was actually planning to take these pictures on a previous day, when my cooking skills and camera skills were a little more impressive. However, on that day, something unfortunate happened.

My mother dumped half a head of cabbage into my lovely red wine mushroom & onion stir-fry.

And I proceeded to eat it anyway.

That, my friends, is how things go in this kitchen.