Seasonal recipe No 34 – Red onion marmalade

From Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook – “the perfect thing to eat for lunch with bread and cheese … and it’s delicious with sausages and mash”, she says. It keeps well in the fridge for about a month.

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: about an hour

Ingredients (for 3-4 jars)
2 garlic cloves
sea salt and black pepper
4 tbsp olive oil
450g red onions, sliced
4 tbsp red wine
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
few sprigs of thyme

Method
Crush the garlic with some sea salt and heat the olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan. Add the onions and garlic, and sweat gently, without allowing them to brown, for 20 minutes. Cook until they are translucent and soft.

Add the red wine, balsamic vinegar and brown sugar, and simmer gently until most of the liquid has evaporated, which will take about 15-20 minutes.

Add the thyme, season with salt and pepper and cook for a further 5 minutes. Put into warm sterilised jars and cover while still hot.

Tasty spring greens in the veg boxes

All the boxes this week will have:

potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
onions (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
carrots (Rest Harrow Farm)
* parsnips (Jeremy Brown)
* jerusalem artichokes (Camel CSA)
savoy cabbage (Rest Harrow Farm)
spring greens (Rest Harrow Farm)

Standard boxes will have larger quantities of some of these plus:
* pak choi (Jeremy)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)
cauliflower (Rest Harrow Farm)

Large boxes will also have:
* coriander (Jeremy)
swede (Rest Harrow Farm)
red cabbage (Rest Harrow Farm)

Read a Guardian article about jerusalem artichokes – including a few recipe suggestions.