In the end I decided to make Caramelized Onion Jam using a recipe I found online. Then I doubled it - and it's a good thing! Onions get very very small when you cook them!
Take 12 onions, chop them and saute until they soften then put over low heat, stirring regularly, for a few hours. I think mine took about 3 hours to fully caramelize.
12 onions - in two pots!
12 onions, 3 hours later, consolidated in one large skillet
Add brandy, vinegar, honey, sugar, salt, pepper, and rosemary.
In the end you'll get six 8-ounce jars. That's two onions per jar!
The way the swap will work, we'll let everyone sample what we bring, then we draw numbers and take turns picking what we want to bring home. If you bring six items, you'll go home with six, in theory.
I made another smaller batch of the jam, so I have a total of nine jars. One will be for sampling, one I may hold back, and that means I'll bring 7 to the swap.. I think. We'll see!
Want to know how the jam came out? Check out this later post!
Her blog is gone but I found it on archive.org. Here’s the recipe for posterity. It really was better than what I found online in 2022n
ReplyDeleteLeena’s Caramelized Onion Jam
: A delicious sweet and savory jam that is perfect with cheese, burgers, soups, whatever you like! This recipe was inspired by this one on the blog Market Life. This recipe has been tested for pH and is safe to water bath can.
4 tablespoons olive oil
6 onions, large diced
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar (not the aged sweet stuff)
1/2 cup brandy
1/3 cup honey
7 sprigs fresh rosemary, stems removed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
Heat oil in a large skillet, add onions and cook until soft and translucent on medium high heat.
Once softened, lower heat to medium or medium low, and continue to cook onions until brown and caramelized. This will take a while.
Add remaining ingredients and simmer on low stirring occasionally until the jam reaches the gel point. To test jam, place a small plate in the freezer for at least 10 minutes. When jam starts to get thick, remove from heat and spoon a bit onto the frozen plate, and place back in freezer for 2 minutes. If the jam barely moves and looks like a proper jam, it is done. If the jam pools juice and looks loose, place pot back on stove until thicker and test again.
Pour hot jam into clean hot quarter pint jars and boil in a water bath for 10 min (15 minutes for half pint jars). Let cool and store in a dark place. Refrigerate any excess. Yields 5 quarter pints