Washing wide web

Claustrophobically foggy today. And icy with it. I woke up full of cold so was allowed to just stay in bed, and my lie-in plus several lemsips and a brunch of ginger beer and flapjacks had me fighting fit by noon.

The morning was spent quietly moaning about being poorly while helping Mr B on the scaffolding. The afternoon was spent finishing off the red onion marmalade and some other bits and bobs. Did you know you can make your own hot chocolate mix? Really delicious too.

So, the onion marmalade has turned out fine, despite its 3 day genesis. Here, such as it is, is my recipe:

6 red onions, finely sliced
3 cups sugar (or less) I used white, but brown might be nice
3 cups red wine vinegar (or mix red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar)
bay leaves (a few)
pepper (can used cracked whole peppercorns, or ground)
Optional extras: replace some of the liquid with red wine and/or brandy, maybe add some Christmas spices.

1. Mix the onions with 1 cup of the sugar. Gently fry the sugary onions in a little oil and butter, stirring every 5 mins or so until they are quite reduced and the juice is syrupy (takes a while - don't rush or they'll burn).

2. Add the rest of the ingredients (including the remaining sugar) and cook at a lowish simmer, uncovered and stirring occasionally, until the liquid has almost gone. You can tell it's done with the usual test for chutneys: draw a wooden spoon across the bottom of the pan, when the marmalade is ready it will leave a clear channel, flooded after a few seconds by the remaining liquid.

3. Take out the bay leaves. Pot into hot sterilised jars and seal. This should keep unopened for 6 months or so. Once opened it's best kept in the fridge, but seems to come to no harm when accidentally left out in our warm kitchen.

For jar preparation: when I cook this amount (I normally do double) it would fill one and a half of the smallish La Parfait jars (500mls each I think - 10cm tall and 10cm diameter)

Notes:
a. This is tailored from several recipes and is designed for the uses we have for onion marmalade: enlivening dull gravy and topping oatcakes. Some people might prefer a more vinegary chutney style (add less sugar) and some a sweeter style (more sugar or - better - less vinegar and more wine).

b. For a quicker version just dump all the ingredients in a big pan and simmer until the onions are soft and the liquid almost gone. All you lose is the caremelised-ness of the onions.

c. Using wine in place of some (perhaps one third or a half) of the vinegar will give a richer, less vinegary result - but I don't think it will keep as well then so you might want to store it in the fridge and use it more quickly. For a very quick version that you will use that day, use almost all red wine but reduce the quantity of liquid (by about half). Wine doesn't need such long cooking.

d. I think the brandy adds richness, but it may just be an affectation so feel free to ignore that.

e. For a hint of Christmas, add some cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon (maybe a quarter tsp of the first two and 1tsp of cinnamon, or whatever you fancy). Makes the kitchen smell lovely.

It's not a cost effective way of getting hold of some onion marmalade - you can buy it cheaper in the shops than you can buy all the ingredients (unless you make your own vinegar!) but it is delicious. Just try a few tablespoons stirred into gravy for sausage and mash. Dreamy. Particularly if it's horseradish mash... Mmm that's dinner sorted for tomorrow.

Anyway, the photo is proof that being a slovenly housewife has benefits. Here my slack clothes-line management (it's supposed to be brought in every night but has been out there since October....2008) has helped local spiders. And they've helped me with a lazy "ooh, look at the bright hazy foggy sunshine in the background" blip. It's a virtuous circle.

EDIT: Just noticed today is 600 blips, funny how that crept up on me. I will be mostly celebrating with red onion marmalade, of course.