Jammin' Onion Jam

The Power of the Onion – And I don’t mean Odor
 
Onions; oh, the sheer beauty of them. Now, before you get all crazy on me and say that they give you bad breath and gas, please remember that they give you so much more.  Their versatility spans from the savory to the sweet. With layers upon layers of translucent rings, they are a super hero of flavor.  They come in all sizes and stamina. And as if that weren't enough, they are a powerful anti-inflammatory with the hallmark flavonoid antioxidant, quercetin. What the heck is that?  I'm not exactly sure but it sounded interesting and important.  Seriously though, they are really good for you.  Don't take my word, and to avoid getting all scientific technical on you, check out this link for more health info.
 
As a supporting team player, adding onions to a dish can really boost up the flavor.  I add them to so many of my dishes, but I also feel that they can be the star, too.  Here is one of my favorite ways of serving onions. Jamming up the onions to make them sweet. (I bolded that line because you will probably read it again and again with future onion ideas, as they are like children, there really are no favorites, I love them all the same.)

Onions are made up of almost 90% water with 4% sugar and 2% fiber.  We are going to take full advantage of that 4% sugar and help it along to make jam.  Of course, we'll need a few other items to coax them along, but not much more. Plus it  hardly takes any work to make these onions delicious.

It doesn't take many ingredients to make a condiment that will steal the show.

Ingredients

3-4 onions*, thinly sliced (approx. 5 c)
2 cups or about 1/2 bottle red wine
1/2 c red wine vinegar
3/4 c honey
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper
2 T olive oil
* You can use yellow onions or red, and even mix the two, as I did this time around.  

instructions

Thinly slice the onions and sauté them in a large pan in oil with salt/pepper for about 8-10 minutes until they sweat. 

Just let the onions cook down a bit until slightly soft.

Once they are slightly soften, add the wine. (I usually make onion jam when I have a leftover bottle of red bottle hanging around. For two reasons; one, you always want to use a wine that you would drink and two, this is a great way to use a wine before it might have to go down the drain.) Cook over low heat until the onions cook down and absorb the wine. Since these are cooking over a low flame, it will take some time; between 1 - 1.5hrs

Pour in the good stuff, red wine makes it better.

Once the wine is almost completely absorbed and the onions are saturated with wine, add the vinegar and let cook for hour until most of liquid is absorbed.  Next add the honey, bringing it to a rolling boil for a few minutes, then turn down the flame to low and let it all get nice and cozy together.  

Pour in some acid to balance the sweet.

I warn you now, to get it jammy you will need to let this cook down for quite some time, approximately another hour or even 2. Good thing is, you don’t have to stand over it.  Just stir every now and then. At the point when there is a small amount of liquid left bring it back up to a rolling boil for 5 minutes.  The onions will get soft and the liquid turns thicker and more jam-like.  

Dark and rich with sweet, sticky goodness.

Let cool and store in a glass jar or air tight container.  These will last for a couple of months.

I love serving them as jam in a sweet little bowl.  Maybe one I’ve picked up at a garage sale or specialty store and adding it as the star to pair with cheese.  The earthy, robust yet sweet flavor of the jam makes it a perfect complement to cheese.  

Cheese board filled with sweet and savory.

Need some more nifty uses:

• a sweet topping for grilled/roasted chicken or pork

• swap out caramelized onions with onion jam to top some sliders with cheese. 

• try it in salad such as baby arugula. It's the right amount of sweet to balance that peppery green. 

• Hey, what about potatoes, purple kale and onions, topped with more onions - jam.

Pork loin, basmati rice with onions and Enoki mushrooms, Haricot verts and pan seared tomatoes.

Sautéd purple kale, onions with pan seared potatoes topped with onion jam.

Grass fed hamburger sliders with Gouda cheese, onion jam on a bed of baby arugula.

Alright, go ahead and test it on everything until you find something that it doesn’t work well with. (And then let me know.)  Some suggestions on serving this.  Use cold or at room temp when pairing with cheese. Warm it up slightly when using it with warm food.

Enjoy the power of onions.  I promise these won’t give you bad breath or drive away friends.  In fact, I would wager to say that you will actually make a few. 

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5 Quick, No Bake Desserts - In a Pinch

I realize that this title will come as a shock to those of you who know how much I love to bake, but sometimes I need a dessert in a pinch.  If I've got 5, 6 or even more appetizers to make, plus the meal; well dessert just ends up getting the short end of the stick.  With these 5 fast and easy assemble desserts, you don't have to stress about making sure there is something sweet and appealing after your meal.  Plus a few of these can easily be brought as a dessert offering when you are the one asked to bring something sweet.

Fresh Ricotta with Figs, Peaches & Honey

There is nothing as simple as assembling items on a board or platter.  

This sweet and savory offering is just that kind of dish.  Arrange seasonal fruits, like figs & peaches for the summer, on a pretty plate or a wooden board. Fill a bowl with fresh ricotta & drizzle with honey.  It's just that simple. You can toss some nuts in if you like, but for the sheer simplicity of this dish, it's not necessary.  Let the purity of these vibrant flavors speak for themselves.  The creaminess of the ricotta against the nature sweetness of the fruit with that extra sweetness from the honey is soothing combination.

Chocolate Dipped Fruit

This one might take a tad more effort but not much more.  Use the fruit of your choice or the ones in season.  I had raspberries, blackberries and bananas on hand.  Dip each piece in melted dark chocolate and let cool on parchment paper.  You can roll them in crushed nuts or coconut to ratchet it up a notch.  Then arrange on a plate and watch these fly faster than they took to make.  Believe it or not, these little 'pop in your mouth' treats are so pretty that they will make an "ohh' statement on your dessert table.  So easy enough to make, you can get your kids to help.

Cheese Course

Cheeses with strawberries, grapes, mini bread sticks and Tortas de Aceite (Sweet Olive Oil Crackers).

Blue cheese (such as Cabrales, Valdeon, Stilton or Gorgonzola). Add nuts, date loaf, figs in syrup, oranges.

Ok, this is not my idea, of course, but more of a reminder in case this option was misplaced in the memory banks. Instead of serving cheese as part of your appetizers, save it for dessert and do it the French and Italian way. Enjoy it after the meal.

Fresh Fruit Lovingly bound by Chocolate

This colorful, flavorful option is similar to but slightly different to the above chocolate dipped fruit.  Instead of individual chocolate coated fruits, this version creates a bed of chocolate for the fresh fruit, nuts and sea salt to lie gently atop.  I made this on just such an occasion when I didn't have time but wanted to serve a dessert after lunch.  It was better than I thought and served the purpose beautifully.   I already had a chocolate ganache in the fridge. (Ganache is just chocolate with a tad of cream added to it.  This keeps it from getting completely hard and makes it pourable to glaze a cake or drizzle. I liked using the ganache for this version because once I refrigerated it, it became hard enough to hold the fruit together but still had a softness that added to the yumminess. A result I didn't quite realize would occur. 

Spread the ganache on parchment. Not too thin.

Lovingly place the fruit in a visual manner that pleases your eye and your belly. Add nuts and sprinkle with course sea salt.

Chocolate Bark

If you don't happen to have fresh fruit, then go the traditional chocolate bark route.  This version does not use ganache.  It is pure chocolate melted down.  I use a combo of dark chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate. Spread the melted mixture onto a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.  Then top with whatever suits your fancy.  I like cashews, dried apricots & dried cherries plus a healthy sprinkling of course sea salt.  That really makes the chocolate sing. Refrigerate until solid, then cut or break into shards.  No brainer of sheer joy. 

I hope these ideas provide you a few quick, easy but delicious desserts to have in your back pocket when you are in a pinch.  I promise you, your guests will not miss the cake or pie or any other more labor intensive sweet.  

Luscious Butternut Cream Crostini with Roasted Walnuts & Honey

Let's state the obvious. We throw a lot of parties.  Entertaining fools;  we love to do it. (Alright maybe me a tad more than JC).  Whether the scale is big or an intimate gathering, you always need good nibbles. And the small bites you offer should be tasty and as exciting to you as they are to your guests. Which is why I'm constantly toying around with ideas in the ongoing quest for a tasty appetizer. 

I'm like everyone else, I have some fan favorites,  and will admit that I recycle them for certain events.  Heck, why not?  If something works then play that tune again and again. But I have flavor curiosity syndrome. so I am forever surfing my brain, and my palate for new bites.  Throw in the fact that I just like to experiment and thus the parade of apps.  (By the way, I am trying to get that syndrome classified as an official disorder. I think there might be some benefits to that.)

Usually when I come up with an idea, I don't pre-test.  I just take the plunge and serve it up to our guests before ever trying it myself.  Bold and brazen, that would be me. Yet on the occasions when I have an idea but don't have a planned party I become impatient and make a batch to test on friends and family.  So the irony didn't escape me when this particular recipe idea popped into my head at the exact same time that we had 5 weeks of revolving door guests in our home. That's right, captive prisoners, yet our sightseeing schedules left us with no time for food experimentation.  Much like a lyric from Alanis Morisette's song Ironic, "It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife".  A perfectly good crop of guinea pigs gone to waste. So, I cooked up a different plan for testing this recipe.  

Because no parties were in the sight, the next soonest taste tester opportunity was our plans to meet up with family at a restaurant in the Bronx.  My plot: bring little samples in tupperware and hand them out prior to entering the restaurant. This is my interpretation of an amuse bouche.  Appetizer BEFORE the appetizer.  (The real meaning of amuse bouche is a bit of food served before the meal to stimulate the appetite.  To amuse your mouth. I think mine did just that.)

First off, Juan Carlos thought I was nuts, (as he often does), and I thought my idea would be met with surprised faces and thoughts of, “who brings appetizers to a restaurant and requests that they be gobbled up like contraband in a dark alley?”  However, as I passed out my little samples, they were happy to oblige. I just love these people!  Once they popped these fluffy bites into their mouths, they didn’t care where they were eating them. 

Tom, one of my biggest fans, ready for his part.

Therese testing the pear, gluten free version. Thanks!

Aunt Rosie, being a good sport

Although this experiment went well, I have enhanced the original idea.  Plus I highly recommend serving them at home on a proper platter to your guests.  (Clandestinely handing them out from a plastic container on a Bronx street corner should be your last resort.)
 

Ingredients

1.5 c butternut squash, roasted
1/2 cup ricotta
1/3 c walnuts, roasted
1/3 c pumpkin seeds, roasted
1/8 tsp nutmeg
3 good pinches red pepper flakes
1.5 t salt
1/8 tsp pepper
Parmesan shards
honey, to drizzle
French baguette, sliced
Pear (I used a Red Anjou)
 

Instructions

Place the two halves of butternut squash on a roasting pan and season with salt, pepper and olive oil.  Roast at 375 degrees until fork tender (about 45 min).  Let cool.

Then scoop out the soft squash and put into a food processor.  Add the salt, pepper, red pepper, nutmeg and blend until smooth.  Add the ricotta cheese and blend until combined.

Roasted and ready for becoming a rich creamy delight.

In a saucepan on the stovetop or in a baking sheet the oven, lightly toast the walnuts and the pumpkin seeds to release their oils and fragrance.  Roughly chop them, keeping them separate.

Place the bread slices on a sheet pan and lightly toast one side, then turn and place the parmesan shards on the other side and toast until slightly melted.

Meanwhile, stir the pumpkin seeds into the butternut/ricotta mixture.  Once the crostini are ready, spoon on the butternut cream mixture, sprinkle the chopped walnuts and drizzle with honey. Serve on your prettiest plate.

If you recall, I don't eat bread.  Neither does my cousin, Therese, who was among the original taste testers. So I needed to come up with delivery vehicle that we both could consume and not feel cheated.  I hate feeling cheated.  Enter the pear for a gluten free version of this app.

Use a nice, thick slice.  We both loved the crisp, freshness of the pear against the creamy, sweetness of the butternut squash, ricotta and honey.  Not only did we not feel cheated, but we felt we had the better version. Shh!

I was really happy with how this ultimately turned out. The folks who had the crostini version liked the crunch of the bread against the creaminess of the butternut squash/ricotta mixture.  Therese and I loved how the pear worked with these flavors.   True confessions, and in authentic something from nothing style, I don't always know all the ingredients up front that will end up in a recipe.  Case in point here, as there was no red pepper in the set up photo. The addition of red pepper flakes came upon tasting it and realizing that the squash and ricotta are quite mild and were desperately calling out for a punch.  AND when I needed to bring an appetizer to a dinner party this past week I decided to make this.  In recreating it I added the pumpkin seeds for addition texture and parmesan for additional saltiness. Neither of which was in the original version. See how it works, my friends. You keep creating, improving and stirring it with more love each time.  

As I suggested earlier, instead of serving this in a back alley, bringing it to a friend's dinner party and serving it on a proper platter, well... It goes without saying that this was an infinitely much better locale!

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Tomatoes Galore: Tomato Fennel Spread & More

What do you do when you buy 25 lbs of tomatoes? 

Make a spread... that is, after making a ton of other tomato goodies. But first, I bet you are wondering why I bought so many tomatoes.  Well, it's the end of the season and our farmer's market had an offer I just couldn't refuse.  So after making containers upon containers of Roasted Tomatoes...
 

AND Tomato Sauce, to freeze for the fall months...

AND Oven Dried Tomatoes...

These were easy.  Place on parchment paper & sprinkle oregano on tomatoes. Roast at 200 degrees for HOURS.  These took 7 hours, then I let them dry out more in the warm, but turned off oven overnight.  

Just like sun dried tomatoes, pack these in olive oil and use at will.

I looked at my cutting board and saw tons of tomato tops.  

I know, you are thinking, just toss those away, don't I have enough tomato product already?  But it seemed like so many to just throw out. (I must have been channeling my grandmothers who never wasted anything.)  I then realized I had a fennel stalk that needed to be used before it was abused by age and I got the idea for a tomato jam.  I figured it would be like making regular ole fruit jam, but thought I would quickly google tomato jam to see if I was on the right track.  It seems no matter how you slice it when making tomato jam, besides the usual need for sugar, you also need an acid. I took what I had and cooked up the following.  I'm calling mine a spread because it's more spread-like than jam, which I think is pretty darn good.

Ingredients

3 c Tomato tops (core cut out)
1 fennel bulb, sliced thinly (no stalks or fronds)
1 large onion, sliced thinly
1 T honey
3 T sugar
2/3 c white wine vinegar
salt, pepper, oil

Onions & fennel sweating up a storm, getting caramelized together.

Tomatoes cooked down with vinegar, sugar & honey.

Buzz it up, but leave it a bit chunky.

INSTRUCTIONS

Sweat the onions and fennel in a tablespoon of olive oil. Add salt and pepper. Once translucent, add the honey and sugar and let melt down.  Add vinegar and tomatoes and simmer over low heat for an hour to hour and half until all the vegetables breakdown.  Use an emulsion blender to puree it all up.  I took out some of the liquid, as I could see it would have been too much and made it soupy instead of a chunky spread.  Store in an airtight jar. Here are some used ways to use this "leftover tomato top" spread.

• Add it as a condiment to a cheese platter
• Top grilled fish
• Slather it on a baked potato
• Jazz up a plain salad
• Spread it on a sandwich and grill it up, like I did below.  Enjoy 'spreading' the love.

The "spread": Serrano ham, Manchego cheese, baguette and of course, tomato fennel spread

Slather it one side, olive oil on the other and start adding the rest of the goodies.

I grilled the sandwich in a cast iron pan to get the bread crispy and the cheese melted.  Served it with some Spicy Crunch Slaw and rice/beans.

My sister, Jilly & niece, Gabrielle: Happy Customers !!