Onion Relish

Little by little I’m getting to try out making things that I’ve never made before and over the past few months that has included a couple of preserves in the form of chutneys ( blackberry & apple, date & apricot ) and pickled cucumber .  It’s one of the exiting things about food, there’s always something new to try.  What surprises me most though is how simple a lot of these things turn out to be when you finally get around to trying them.  If I’d grown up on a farm perhaps with a glut of onions or apples to be used up I probably would have learned the art of preserving somewhere along the way but it has evaded me until now.
I love most foods both savoury and sweet but one of my favourite taste experiences is a mixture of the two and that tangy yet sweet combination is to be found in a jar of this onion relish.

Any relish that you don’t use up with your crackers and cheese can be smeared on a pizza, pastry or pitta base topped with some crumbled cheese and cooked to create a sophisticated pizza.  You can use any onions that you have, red or white for the relish and I used a combination of both when I was making mine.
 Yesterday I had some of the onion relish in a thickly sliced cheddar cheese sandwich with a side of Tayto Cheese & Onion crisps for my lunch with a big mug of tea. (Barry’s of course, I am from Cork like).  Divine.

Onion Relish
You will need:
4 medium-sized onions
4 tbsp olive oil or rapeseed oil
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp light muscovado sugar (or any brown sugar that you have)
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Method:
Peel and thinly slice the onions.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a low heat and add the onions and salt.   Leave to cook and soften for 45 minutes stirring occasionally.
Add the sugar and balsamic vinegar and stir well.  Increase the heat until it begins to bubble and then reduce the heat to low again for another 5 minutes until sticky and syrupy.
Take off the heat and leave to cool in the saucepan.
Store in sterilised jar in the fridge.
Enjoy.
Til next time, Sheila