Garden grown onion marmalade

The Glen House garden is full of these beautiful little shallots; several months ago we planted some vegatable bulbs and tiny stater plants (take a look at this post) and now we are starting to enjoy the produce.

Having just finished a shop bought jar of onion marmalade it was pretty clear what we had to try and make next….

Onion Marmalade

Ingredients:
Loads of little onions (or 4 large ones)
3 Cloves of garlic
65 g Muscovado sugar
175 ml Balsamic vinegar
¼ Nutmeg powder
1 Clove crushed
1 tspn Chilli powder
1 tspn Paprika
Salt and pepper

Method:
Peel and thinly slice the onions and garlic. Add a large knob of butter to your pan on a medium-low heat. Do not allow the butter to darken; when it starts to bubble, add the onions and stir.

Allow the onions to cook for 15-20 minute on a medium-low heat until they become translucent. Add the chopped garlic and stir. Cook gently for a further 3 minutes. Do not allow your pan to get too hot at this stage as the onions will become crispy and the garlic will burn, giving your marmalade a bitter taste.

After three minutes, add the muscovado sugar to the pan and stir in thoroughly, coating all of the onions with sugar. As the sugar melts, the mixture should turn brown and become sticky.

With the onions evenly coated, you can add the balsamic vinegar. Increase the pan to a high heat just before pouring in the vinegar, and stir your onions as you add the liquid. When your balsamic begins to bubble, reduce to a medium-low heat.

With your balsamic simmering, stir in the chilli, paprika, nutmeg, crushed clove, and salt and pepper to taste. As the mixture begins to reduce, you can balance the flavours by adding more sugar or vinegar to the pan. You are looking for a perfect balance between a tangy initial flavour, and a sweet, spicy after-taste.

Gently cook away all of the residual liquid until you are left with a thick and sticky jam. Place your cooked marmalade into a clean air-tight jam jar and seal. Allow the jar to cool to room temperature before storing the onion marmalade in your fridge. It can keep for several months and is delicious served hot or cold.

The marmalade is delicious with cold meats, cheese and bar-be-qued hamburgers!

We also pickled some shallots in a vinegar solution…. They should be ready to munch on soon too.

As always, I’m popping over to Angie’s place for Fiesta Friday, so I’ll bring a jar of each.

Happy Friday!

Melissa xx