Matthew Woolen is a master pastry chef and has worked in a variety of Seattle restaurants, including gastropub Old Sage, Zhu Dang, and a gluten-free restaurant called Capitol Cider.

Matthew Woolen

When you make crème fraîche (and cheeses), you’re going to end up with whey, and the best and most practical way to use your whey is to cook vegetables in it. As whey reduces, it begins to thicken and its sugars start to caramelize, forming a glaze. Here, I chose to use cipollini onions (pearl onions work great as well), but you can use all kinds of vegetables—carrots, fennel, squash, mushrooms, etc.—as long as they’re cut into smaller, uniformly sized pieces so they’ll cook evenly. The process is identical: Simmer the vegetables in whey until they’re softened and the whey reduces to a glaze. Once glazed, you can continue cooking the vegetables, stirring frequently, to get even more caramelization if you want.The glazed vegetables are excellent served alongside a steak or a pork chop, but they’re also a nice addition to pasta or as garnish for a soup.This recipe is meant to use up the whey produced in our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/creme-fraiche">crème fraîche recipe</a>, but the amount of whey produced is dependent on the live cultures you use, as well as the fermentation temperature. You can make this recipe with as little as 1/2 cup of whey; simply add water to get to 1 cup of cooking liquid.

Whey-Braised Cipollini Onions