Roasted Stuffed Sweet Onions

These Moroccan-inspired stuffed onions have an exotic sweet-meetssavory flavor that can be adapted with raisins, cranberries or the dried fruit of your choice.

1 cups chicken stock cup dried apricots, cut into

pieces

1 teaspoon lemon zest

4 medium sweet onions, unpeeled 5 tablespoons butter, divided use

pound ground beef or lamb 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon kosher salt teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 or 4 dashes of store-bought or

homemade hot sauce 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped

parsley leaves

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped

mint leaves

2 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs

Instructions: Heat the oven to 400 degrees. In a small pot over medium heat, combine the stock, apricots and lemon zest. Gently simmer until the apricots are plump and the liquid is reduced to a cup, roughly 10 minutes.

Without peeling the onions, cut about 1 inch off the tops and just enough off the bottoms that each onion stands upright. Remove all but the outer two layers of each onion by scooping out the centers with a spoon or melon baller, reserving the insides.

Set the onion shells in a baking dish. Finely chop the insides.

Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in a skillet over medium-low heat. Stir in 2 cups of the chopped onions, reserving the rest for another use, and cook until softened, 10-12 minutes. Add the beef or lamb, cinnamon and cumin, and season with the salt and pepper. Raise the heat to medium-high and cook, continually stirring with a wooden spoon, until the meat is crumbly, 7-8 minutes. Do not drain the rendered fat; it’s needed to keep the onions moist. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the apricot mixture and its liquid, hot sauce to taste, and the parsley and mint. Let cool slightly.

Spoon some of the meat mixture into each of the hollowed-out onions, pressing down with your hands and mounding it over the onions. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the onions and dot with the remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and bake until tender, 30-45 minutes, depending on the size.

Remove the foil and continue to bake until the breadcrumbs are brown, about 10 minutes more.

Remove from the oven and transfer to the serving dishes. Peel off the dried, outer layers of each onion, and serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings