Ilse's Kitchen - culinary adventures of a girl who loves to eat

When I lived in Spain, I used to make this wonderful onion compôte. Not too sweet, not too overbearing, and somehow even a little fresh. It made a great compliment to paté, a strong smoked cheese on toast, in a burger, or as a side to a mashed potatoes and meat dish. I never got around to taking a decent photo though, and after moving away I more or less forgot about it. Until I found myself dusting off old recipes, and came across it again. As you can see, I couldn’t resist. This is it :) Ingredients: 1 large red onion 1 tbsp unsalted butter juice of 1/2 lemon juice of 1/2 orange 100ml red wine 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar 1 tbsp light brown cane sugar 1 tsp honey 60g blueberries pinch of thyme pinch of rosemary 1 bay leaf salt and freshly ground black pepper Instructions: 1. Chop the onion (not too fine). Heat the butter in a sauce pan, add the onion, and stir frequently until it takes on a glazed look (approximately 5 minutes). 2. Add the lemon juice, orange juice,...

Minneola tangelos are the sweeter, juicier cousins of the grapefruit and the tangerine. I can't remember having ever bought them before, and yet all of a sudden, one September they were everywhere in their deep orange splendour. What it was about the bag of minneolas I came home with that made me think 'marmalade' I still can’t say, but something did, and here it is. Sweeter than traditional orange marmalade, with none of its bitterness. An easy sell, if you ask me. Homemade minneola marmalade Ingredients (enough for 3 US cups, or two 340mL jam jars and a little extra): 2 cups minneola juice (4 or 5 minneolas should be enough) rind of 4 mineolas 2 cups sugar 1.5 cups water * Equipment: a candy thermometer Instructions: 1. Juice the minneolas and pour the juice into a saucepan. 2. Using a sharp knife, cut the orange outside rind off of the remaining minneola peels, discarding the white pith. This is important - the more of the white pith you put into your ma...