When I discovered this recipe on allthingssimpleblog.com my curiosity was piqued. Onion marmalade? It sounded like an oxymoron or a joke, but there were relatively few steps and the humblest of ingredients, onions, sugar, kosher salt and vinegar, except for one glitch—the vinegar had to be balsamic
I didn’t have any at home. That wasn’t because I disliked the stuff—I’d just never found a brand with a hechsher (kosher certification) I recognized.
I thought about substituting ordinary vinegar or even wine vinegar but that didn’t seem like a good idea especially since balsamic isn’t even technically a vinegar. It’s a the juice of pressed
sweet white Trebbiano grapes which aren’t allowed to ferment into wine. This liquid is reduced to a dark syrup and then aged in kegs fashioned of fine wood—mahogany, ash and cherry, in a process that can take as long as a century to complete. No wonder the stuff is so costly.
My local grocery, had only one bottle with that obscure hechsher.
For a very long moment, I held the black bottle close to my heart as my yetzer hara (ego?)
waged battle with my Yezter Tov (super-ego) .
Yetzer Hara: Maybe it’s okay. It’s got a hechsher. It isn’t like this stuff is pig juice or something.”
Yetzer Hatov: But I never saw it before and it’s made of grapes which is complicated
Yetzer Hara:. But how will I be able to made the onion marmalade without it?
Yetzer Hatov: Forget the cooking. Your neshomo is at a stake!
Just then a friend strolled by.
“Would you buy this,” I asked her holding up the offending bottle.
She crinkled up her nose .Then she reached deep into the shelf beyond the long row of black glass bottles and pulled out another bottle with a hechsher I knew and trusted. A miracle! Hooray!!!
I ran home with my vinegar in hand and in a few hours I’d cooked up my very first batch of onion marmalade. I thought it was yummy, but, let’s be real, this isn’t a dish your kids will enjoy. Let them eat ketchup but for the grownups this is an elegant alternative to mustard or pickle relish. I tucked a large spoonful into a pita bread along with some grilled chicken breast and it was a lovely meal.
Balsamic Onion Marmalade
Slightly adapted from ‘wichcraft via Serious Eats
Yield: 2 to 3 cups
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 4 medium onions, thinly sliced (about 8 cups)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1. Heat the oil in a heavy skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat until it slides easily across the pan. Add the onions, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, until the onions are soft.
- 2. Add the sugar and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes, until the onions appear dry.
- 3. Add the vinegar and reduce the heat to low. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, for about 1 hour, until the onions are soft and dry. Add additional salt and pepper to taste if necessary.
- 4. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store the marmalade in the refrigerator.
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