In the middle of last week I had a visit from Dave & Magdalena, our friends who live a couple of villages down the coast from us.
They came with flowers & veg from their garden, sweet peas which smelt heavenly, I forgot how much I love them, some carrots & onions.

I made a chorizo stew with the carrots & some of the onions but yesterday I still hadn’t used the rest.

So out came my jam & chutney book & I decided to make onion marmalade.

The recipe is simple, its from “100 jams, jellies, preserves & pickles” by Gloria Nicol.

Here is a quick summary:

1kg onions peeled & finely sliced (I used x 3 white, x 3 red and it measured perfectly)

2tbspn olive oil

500ml mixture balsamic vinegar & red wine vinegar ( I used 200ml balsamic, 300ml vinegar)

750g muscovada sugar

2 bay leaves

20 15-20 peppercorns crushed

2 tsp salt

(I added 1 whole chilli finely chopped too)

you gently fry the onion with the oil in a pan with a lid on for 20 mins untill they are all soft.

Then add all the other ingredients and let bubble away for 1-2 hours untill it’s thick but still juicy.

Then pour the mixture into sterilised jars and add waxed discs & lids & leave to cool.

Cutting an onion is always a super quick process in my house as I always cry, so as I had 6 to peel & chop I needed some protection. I have seen in several cook shops special eyewear for stopping the tears whilst cutting onions, but I still haven’t bought a pair, so I had to improvise, the choice was skiing goggles or swimming goggles.

I chose swimming and they worked a treat. Ok they look funny but was I glad I had them on, my nose stung so I knew they were strong onions.

So now I have another 3 jars to add to my collection, it’s going to be a yummy winter.