Onion Jam

I´ve just come back from a very fascinating weekend in Albarracín, Teruel, and was all fired up to tell you about it. But since popular demmand wants onion jam, and since Albarracín is beautiful, but hardly the gastronomic highlight of all Spain, here goes.

I´ve come across several similar recipes of this. My favourite is from the "Ballymaloe Cookery Course", a fantasticly encyclopedic book by Darina Allen that I tote from the kitchen to the sofa and back, all the time.She calls it Onion Marmalade, but I like the word jam. And in Spanish, "mermelada de cebolla" rolls off the tonge very nicely too.

I made it the first time because I had half a bottle of red wine lying around, and wanted to use it. Since I did, I´ve never been without a batch in the fridge. It´s delicious, it´s very useful for millions of things, and it´s addictive.Unless you have your own home-made, it will set you back 5€ for a tiny jar and you will curse yourself for a lazy idiot.
The even better news is that it keeps for weeks in the fridge, so you don´t have to go into all the preserving palaver. It can be fun, but isn´t it nice that it´s optional?

I´ve adapted the recipe slightly, with a bit less sugar and using half butter half oil.And must point out that I use a Thermomix food processor to make it. It´s wonderful machine for cheating, as it heats and stirs, so there´s no danger of things sticking. You may have to keep your eye on the pot a bit more, but really, it´s worth it.

700g white or red onions (It´s usually four)
50 g butter 50 gr oil
130g caster sugar
1 and a half teaspons salt
1 and a half teaspoons pepper, freshly ground
7 tablespoons sherry vinegar
250ml red wine, or oloroso
2 tablespoons cassis (you can use brandy, but it won´t have such a deep burgundy colour)

Peel and slice the onions thinly(I prefer a mandoline to a processor).Melt the butter in the saucepan, with the oil, and let it brown (I usually skip this step, too impatient).Toss in the onion and sugar, salt and pepper and stir well. Cover the saucepan, and cook 30 minutes over a gentle heat, stirring from time to time with a wooden spatula.

Add the sherry vinegar, red wine and cassis. Cook for a further 30 minutes uncovered, stirring regularly. Don´t let it reduce too much. At the end,if butter has risen to the surface, skim it off.

This makes about two cups, and is wonderful on sandwiches, tarts, with cheeses, pates, and even in pasta, and of course scrambled eggs.

And if anybody out there has a Thermomix, here are the timings:
3 min,speed1,100º with just the oil, then 30 min on 100º, speed1, for the first step, and 30min on varoma, speed1 ,uncovered,for the second.