Caramelization

This is a technique that basically brings out the sugars in a food. It's usually used for onions and sometimes shallots but it's a handy thing to know. Here's how to do it:

Slice onion (or whatever your caramelizing) in half then into thin slices. Prepare a saute pan by melting a pat of butter and drizzling a little olive oil. Allow this to heat just a little over medium heat. Then add onions and stir so everything gets coated in fat (butter/oil). Add a pinch of salt because this helps soften the onion.

Now over medium-low heat, slowly cook the onions. They will turn a golden color as they cook because the sugars inside are being cooked. This takes time and if you rush it your caramelizing can turn to burning which isn't tasty. If you need to speed up the process you can add a little sugar to the pan to get a richer color. Make sure to keep stirring the onions every few minutes so they don't stick to the pan and burn.

A note about this method: if you start with an onion, you'll end up with like 1/2 onion. The amount of the original product will go down after this process so if you want a lot of caramelized onions for burgers or something, make sure to start off with more onions then you think you need.