Cooking for Zo

Taste Level: GR
Cost: $20 and under
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 15-20 min.
Cook Time: 10-15 min.
Difficulty: 1

After Zo tasted one of the sweet-onion rings she said with disappointment, "These don't have much flavor." I tasted one and said, "They are alright, I wonder what we could add to them next time." Next time ended up being the next day when I had the idea of adding unsweetened coconut and a little more seasonings to the panko crumbs. Who knew such an idea would work out so well? OK I did... but only because my father made shrimp once for me 5-7 years ago this way. So thank you dad for saving these onion rings!

Ingredients:
Onions
2 cups sweet vidalia onion (sliced into 1/4-1/2 inch rings)
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp garlic powder
2 eggs

Coating
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (found in the organic section of most stores)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4-1/2 tsp Cayenne
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 eggs

Onions
Place flour and garlic powder into a gallon sized ziploc, seal and shake around till well mixed. Place all onions in flour mixture and shake around until onions are coated well.

Coating
Preheat oven and a large pizza stone to 450 degrees. (Alternately you can fry onion rings in olive oil.)

Beat 2 eggs in a small bowl until smooth.

Whisk together all remaining ingredients in a medium bowl until mixed well. Dip onion slices into egg wash, then coat thickly with panko mixture and lay them onto a large dish. Continue until all the onion rings are coated well.

Remove pizza stone from oven (being careful not to burn yourself) and place all of the onion rings onto the pizza stone. Bake onion rings for 3-5 minutes, remove from oven, flip all onion rings and return to oven continuing to bake for 3-5 minutes or until all onion rings are crisp and turning golden brown.

Serve hot with ranch dressing (we used a tequila lime ranch dressing.) Enjoy!