Curried Onion Relish
The Common, Made Unique
The onion, although playing an integral part in our everyday cooking, is never really given much of a conscious thought or enough credit. It slides under the radar but actually is one of the most diverse, cuisine adaptive, inexpensive and universally accessible ingredient. This preservative places a shining light on the onion and lets us all give a little praise to our good friend, mr (or mrs?) onion!
Now before you freak out, just because I said preservative doesn’t mean it’s a complicated, brain consuming recipe. In fact relishes are one of the simplest - just combine all, mainly cupboard staple ingredients, into a large pot and cook for a few hours until it reaches setting point (I go through this process step-by-step below).
Relishes are a great way to use an in-season ingredient and be able to taste it months down the track or allow a simple, normally under minded ingredient, a little love. Relishes are great for adding extra flavour to your meal or accompanying any cheese board, mixed party platter or a sneaky late night sandwich.
For this recipe, I am sharing my favourite curried onion relish with a simple camembert wheel and slices of fresh baguette - great for family picnics, late night alfresco desserts with friends or cosy winter’s by the fire.
Curried Onion Chutney
Ingredients
1 kg onions, thinly sliced
1 cup sugar (to make the chutney darker, use brown sugar)
¾ cup red wine vinegar
3 small chillies
1 ½ tsp salt
2 tbsp Thai curry powder
2 sprigs rosemary, removed from stem
50 grams raisins
½ cup orange juice
½ tsp cayenne pepper
Method
In a large pot, sauté the onions on high heat for 3-4 minutes or until they have reduced in size and begin to sweat/brown a little. Add the sugar, vinegar, chillies, salt and rosemary, mixing well and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 1.5 hours or until most of the liquid has evaporated and the onions become a thick consistency.
Meanwhile, sterilise 2-3 medium sized jars*.
Add the remaining ingredients and cook for a further 20-30 minutes or until the onions have turned a yellow colour and the spice has become fragrant.
Place into jars immediately with boiled lids sealing them - these can be kept unopened for one year and once opened should be kept in the fridge and used within 1-2 months.
*For sterilisation there are many methods but I choose to use the oven method because I find it easiest, but feel free to adapt to other ones if you prefer. Place jars (without lids) into the oven at 130 Degrees Celsius for 25-30 minutes. Make sure they are not touching each other to avoid the glass shattering. Once the chutney is near competition, boil jar lids for 10-15 minutes on the stove top - drain only once they are to be used immediately.
