Glazed onions au soleil levant

In Alexandria, Egypt, relatives of Claudia Roden served all kinds of pickled vegetables as appetizers. I'd have loved to be a guest in the fifties between cool white-washed walls at sunset. Between Françoise Bernard for French cooking and Claudia Roden for Jewish cooking, I borrow from both, and then follow Roden's timing - 15 minutes extra to 30 minutes of cooking. I had a few shallots, although far better it would be to prepare smaller white onions.

Glazed onions au soleil levant

Small white onions or shallots

Roden:
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil
lemon juice

Françoise Bernard:
50 cl water
40 g butter
1 teaspoon powdered sugar

Combine olive oil and sugar, heat, add the onions, braise them over low-moderate heat with the lid on for 30 minutes. I added a knob of butter and a splash of water.

Remove the lid, briefly turn up the heat, then lower, add the lemon juice, and let the sauce reduce to a thicker brown mixture in 15 minutes.

Taste, and serve hot or cold. If unused as appetizer, use in an omelet!

Picture: onions au soleil levant.

The happy coincidence of Quince Jam

Well, well, well. Who'd think that someone nagging about sugar would dwell in the department of pastries and sweets - ahem. But never ever have I had so many quinces at my disposal. Although I reported about this harvest here, prepared this and that, in 2007 also this, and in 2006 also that, more measures were called for.

From following a recipe by Claudia Roden for Bimbriyo - in fact, quince paste, the Spanish membrilla - and making a mistake by adding the sugar before cooking, I reversed the wheel and made jam. Several used recipients and one very messy kitchen counter later, quince jam -that's jam, not jelly- became a fact (*). I started from Roden's ingredients for bimbriyo from The Book of Jewish Cooking.

Quince Jam

2 kg quince
1 kg sugar (I used 750 g unrefined cane sugar)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 vanilla bean pod, slit open
agar agar (as jellification agent)

Note: Roden's procedure is first cooking the fruit, then filtering the juices, that are reduced and combined with the fruit pulp and sugar to make a thick paste. My description deviates.

Rub the quince clean with a vegetable brush, cut them into four pieces. Add them to a heavy pan, add water until they are immersed, add the sugar, vanilla, and the lemon juice, and boil gently for 2 hours.

Get out the vegetable mill, and purée this mixture with the sieve with medium holes. Repeat this gesture with the sieve with the smallest holes.

Add the remaining mixture to a new pan. Add agar agar (*), and bring to a brief boil.

Sterilize glass containers with boiling water.

Ladle the jam in the sterilized glass, tighten lids, and put the containers on their heads, to seal the jam.

(*) Usually with jam, refined sugar is added during the second brief boil, and it will act as a jellifying agent. As I found the mixture already sweet enough, no extra sugar, but two generous tablespoons of agar agar. I hoped the jam would jellify enough - it did not quite in all places, but I used less sugar, did not measure my quantity of jam, nor the agar agar I'd need. My result was jam-compote. Great taste, though sweet for my doings.