Baked & Fried Fingerlings with French Onion Confit

A pretty random experiment, that yielded an interesting taste phenomenon. The idea was to make the fingerlings in a manner similar to french fries (twice cooked), and pair that with something sweet. While not visually that interesting, the surprise flavor that came across was PEANUTS!

From gastronomic guesswork

The fingerlings were baked at 400F until fork tender, cooled, and then deep fried in 2 inches grapeseed oil at 360F for about 8-10 minutes. The french onion confit involved slowly caramelizing sliced organic red onions with a touch of grapeseed oil and a dash of baking soda (to reduce the pH level to allow for a more complete caramelization). Once the onions took on a mahogany color and pretty much lost all structure, this was deglazed with organic sherry vinegar and mounted with a touch of butter and a dash of sea salt. The onions on their own evoked French Onion soup, and the fingerlings on their own evoked "home fries", but together flavors of vanilla and peanuts emerged, with the peanut flavor being very evident. Quite surprising, anyone out there have an idea of the volatile flavor compounds at play which may have given rise to the note of peanuts? In a weird way it reminded us of eating a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.