Onion Marmalade

I have been meaning to make onion marmalade since harvesting the onions a couple of months ago. 

I love onion marmalade and I think it goes so well with a good cheese and salad especially when served toasted on ciabatta bread. Yummy!

 

We harvested a few hundred onions and as the weather turns damp and cold, I fear many of our stored onions will start to rot. We have stored as much as possible indoors and the remaining are stored in the shed. But it is time to start using those in the shed and what better way than onion marmalade. I only finished the last jar of last years marmalade recently. It stored very well and tasted amazing even after a year.

So I got out my favourite recipe books and read through them and then decided not to follow them at all!

I sweated the onions with butter on the range for nearly an hour.

Once it was very soft and starting to brown, I added brown sugar and red wine vinegar to taste. I let it gently simmer for another hour, stirring occasionally until it had reduced down nicely.

While hot, I put it into clean jars and sealed the lid. If the vacuum is good then the seal should pop down, then I'll know it will keep well. Otherwise I will need to put them into a water bath to heat/sterilise the jars again. 

This is the first of many batches to be started this week.

 I can only manage to do small batches at a time. Home grown onions are much stronger and they make me cry and cry! Although it does clear the children from the kitchen and give me a break for a while ;-)