Onion Marmalade

Onion Marmalade

The family Beswick has descended on sunny Wales this week. The annual pilgrimage has taken us to the beautiful Llŷn peninsula this year and we are being truly spoilt with some glorious sunshine. With picnics the order of the day, we needed the perfect preserve to accompany our spread. After much debate back in Stockport we decided that onion marmalade would be the ideal choice.

The hardest part of making this preserve is the peeling and finely slicing of 4kg of onions if you have a food processor with the appropriate attachment this is a whole lot easier. Alternatively you could do what I did and convince your better half to be helpful. As they say “a problem shared is a problem halved.”

Ingredients

200ml olive oil

4kg white onions

400g soft brown sugar

227g redcurrant jelly

600ml cider vinegar         

100ml balsamic vinegar

2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

Makes ten 200g jars         

Method

First get your jars sterilising. Then peel and finely chop the onions. Heat the oil in a large pan over a medium heat then add your prepared onions. Reduce the heat and cook your onions covered for 40 minutes until they are soft and beginning colour.

Add the sugar and redcurrant jelly, stir often to prevent burning for a further 30 minutes until the onions have become a dark rich brown. You will notice by this point most of the moisture will have disappeared.

Remove the pan from the heat for a moment to let it cool and then add the vinegars. Return to the heat cooking for only a further 10 minutes until you can clearly see the bottom of the pan for a couple of seconds when you draw a spoon across the middle. Season with salt and pepper and stir thoroughly. Place in your hot sterilised jars.

View from the terrace