Last year I made some fabulous Onion Garlic Jam. I added bacon to it and had some super fabulous Bacon Onion Garlic Jam. It was to die for. Lily and I loooooved it and pretty much ate all of it ourselves. *burp* And did not regret one tiny mouthful.
It's heaven.
This year I decided to make some more only instead of using the white sugar, I wanted to sweeten it with honey. Mmmmm. It is fantastic! So, here is a recipe for Honeyed Onion Garlic Jam with no white sugar. Yay!
Honeyed Onion Garlic Jam
www.rurification.com
- 2 large onions [the sweeter the better], sliced
- 1 full heads of garlic, peeled.
- 2 T butter
- 2 T oil
- 2 T balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup white wine vinegar. I use my own.
- 1/2 cup honey
- 3 T real maple syrup. I use my own.
- dash of pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
Cut the onion up in thin slices, then cut the slices down in length to a couple of inches. I like that texture in the finished product.
Don't mince the garlic. If you leave them bigger, you can use them as a gauge to see how done things are later. When the onions are truly caramelized, everything will be very very soft and fall apart when pressed with a spoon. This is easier to see in the garlic cloves. Let them be your guide.
Put the butter, oil, onion, garlic and balsamic vinegar in a heavy pan on low. I have a 1-10 range of settings on my stove and I put it at between 2 and 3. Cook the onions and garlic until they are caramelized - at LEAST an hour or more. My last big batch took 4 hours because I did a huge batch all at one time.
Make sure things are soft and falling apart!
To your lovely brown mix of caramelized goo, add the vinegar, honey, maple syrup, salt and pepper. You can turn the pan up to medium heat while you cook this down to the consistency you want. When you drag a spatula along the bottom of the pan, you should see some space behind it before the juices gather round again. Once you see that space, then it's done. It will thicken up a lot when it's cold.
You can steam or water bath can this jam to keep it long term. 10 minutes for jellies.
Want to turn this into Honeyed Bacon Jam? While the onions are caramelizing, cut 4 slices of raw bacon short-ways into 1/2 inch or smaller pieces. Fry it up until crisp. Let it drain on a paper towel until it's cool. Once it's cool, crumble it into bits. When the rest of the jam is done, add the bacon to it and stir it up well. Since Bacon Jam has bacon in it, don't try to can it. Just keep it in the fridge. Trust me, it won't last long anyway.