Chef Kraus makes magic with i’itoi onions
Leave it to Jeff Kraus to defy expectations.
The chef and owner of Crepe Bar in Tempe has always had a reputation for doing his own, crazy thing. But if you thought the fellow who made his name whipping up crepe batter would make a beeline for the goat’s milk, you’re wrong. It’s OK. I was, too.
Instead, Kraus, the fourth of six Arizona chefs featured on our video series “Dom’s Cooler Cuisine,” nabbed the i’itoi onions from the remaining three ingredients. And it’s a good thing he did, because his tomato and herb salad was a dynamite summer dish.
(For the video challenge, we filled a cooler with six ingredients that were farmed, foraged or produced in Arizona. We asked six local chefs to choose one and create an original dish on the spot. But they don’t know what’s in the cooler, and once an ingredient is chosen, it’s gone.)
What are i’itoi onions?
Long cultivated by the Tohono O’odham people, i’itoi onions are prized alliums in Arizona. Kraus’ i’itois came from the garden of Suzanne Vilardi. Although they can be used straight out of the ground, bulbs and stems alike, this batch would steer Kraus to the bulbs, which, can be stored in a cool place, just like commercial onions, and have a mild flavor similar to shallots.
Kraus put them to good use — raw, charred and fried.
It was an i’itoi trio, so to speak. Kraus’ first batch of onions was peeled and tossed into a hot cast iron pan to lend them a bit of bitter char. His second batch of onions was dropped, skins and all, into the deep fryer to soften and sweeten. His third batch was simply peeled and chopped, completely raw, leaving their sharper, more pungent characteristics intact.
Different herbs, greens
For the base of his salad, Kraus combined tiny tomatoes with a mix of unusual herbs, all sourced locally. He used purslane, an increasingly popular herb with a tart, almost succulent quality, like cactus in herb form.
He broke out some wasabi arugula, a form of peppery arugula that starts out
‘Dom’s Cooler Cuisine’
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mild at first bite and then suddenly punches strong with a pungent uppercut reminiscent of wasabi.
And finally, to the mix, Kraus added roselle — the leaves of the same plant that provides the hibiscus flowers used to make jamaica — a hearty herb with an intense tartness and a slightly funky finish.
A few croutons and a simple honey vinaigrette made with rice vinegar and paprika later, Kraus’ tomato and i’itoi onion salad was ready.
Here’s a dish beautifully designed to match the onions’ natural sweetness and pungency. With crusty bread soaking up the sweet vinaigrette, it played almost like an Italian panzanella, but with a sharper, more intense fragrance and punch.
Texturally speaking, this was a joy to eat. But the way Kraus used the onions to play off the other ingredients in three different ways was a delight.
The raw onion rose to meet the wasabi arugula’s intense sharpness. The charred onion provided a smoky counterpoint that played off the bread and added some character. And the fried onion rounded the dish out, providing a baseline of deep, mellow sweetness. A quirky summer salad for the desert, and of the desert.
Bob Tam, the chef of Bitter & Twisted Cocktail Parlour, with just two ingredients left to choose from, hits one out of the park.