Corduroy Orange

No, Really, It’s Good!

When I told my sister that we’d be eating it, she turned up her nose at me; but once it was on the table, she was asking for seconds. It’s surprising the first time you taste this dish that its main ingredient is onions. The finished result is sweet and tasty, and there are many uses for it: it’s scrumptious on a zucchini muffin, delicious on roasted winter squash (as pictured), and tasty paired with lean fish. Rolled into a crepe, I call it Crepes Julia, after my sister-in-law, for whom I was supposed to have made it but still have not yet (Maybe in March, Julia!)

Sweet Caramelized Red Onion Marmalade!

• 2 large red onions, cut thinly (julienne)
  
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 cup red wine or cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup (sub honey if you don’t have real syrup)
• 1/2 cup butter, cut into small cubes and kept cold until needed
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• pinch of salt

Put a large saute pan with a tight-fitting lid over very low heat and add a little bit of oil to the bottom of the pan (just enough to cover the bottom of the pan). Sweat the onions by cooking them, covered, with a pinch of salt until they release their liquid. This will take several minutes, assuming your heat is appropriately low, so once you have them in the pan you’ll have time to work on something else for a while.

When they’ve gone soft and translucent and are in a fair puddle of their own water, remove the cover and turn the heat up under them. You might want to add a touch more oil to the pan now, too. Keep a close eye on them and flip them and stir them as they start to brown. The aim is for them to caramelize without burning. Adjust the heat as necessary; if you need to turn the heat down, remove the pan from the flame briefly (several seconds) to help it to cool down.

Once the onions have developed an even, golden-brown hue, add the wine and the vinegar to the pan. It should steam up quite a bit when it hits the hot pan; this is called deglazing. The liquid added to the pan gets all the bits of stuff that are stuck to the bottom of the pan (called fond) and incorporates them into the sauce. You can help the process along by scraping at the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Because the fond becomes part of the finished product, it’s important not to scorch anything to the bottom of the pan: Golden Brown= Good, Sweet, Flavorfulness whereas Black = Bad, Burnt, Bitterness.

Stir the pan frequently (constantly as the pan gets drier) until the liquid has reduced almost all the way down to nothing. When the pan is almost dry, add the honey, the syrup, and the spices. Stir until the sugars have caramelized and the liquid in the pan is thick and bubbly all over. Turn off the heat and finish the marmalade with the butter, adding a couple of cubes at a time and stirring until they’ve melted. Enjoy immediately, or as soon thereafter as possible.

You’ll probably have a little bit leftover (but not much) It keeps quite well in the refrigerator. This marmalade is good cold, but it’s better warm. It reheats pretty well in the microwave, just be sure to stir it well before re-serving it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 21st, 2006 at 5:40 pm and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.