Red onions with Seville orange and Marsala
Taken from "VEG: simple, stylish and seasonal vegetarian cooking" by Catherine Mason (Pauntley Press, 2001, ISBN: 0-9534879-2-8, price £12.99)
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This invigorating winter dish combines the intense flavours of bitter orange and sweet Marsala wine with melting, slow-cooked chunks of red onion. Seville oranges are only available for a short time during January and early February each year, but they freeze well, if you decide you can't live without them. Alternatively, they can simply be omitted. The character of the finished dish will be radically altered, but is still very good. Interesting enough to stand alone as a starter, accompanied only by a chunk of good bread, this dish also makes a lovely sauce for pasta, baked potatoes or a nut roast.
- 750 g (1 lb 10 oz) red onions, evenly matched in size
- 30g (1 oz) butter (vegans substitute olive oil)
- 150 ml (5 fl oz) sweet Marsala wine
- grated rind and juice of 2 Seville oranges
- 1 level teaspoon salt
- 3 sprigs rosemary
Peel the onions, leaving as much of the base attached as possible to prevent them disintegrating during cooking, and halve them lengthwise. Melt the butter in a large (30 cm, 12 inch), heavy frying pan, and fry the onions, cut side down, over a moderate heat until well-browned, shaking the pan occasionally to prevent the onions from sticking. The onions should fit into the pan in a single layer.
Turn them over, so that the browned, cut sides are uppermost. Add the Marsala, orange juice and rind, salt, rosemary, and enough water to come half-way up the onions. Bring the onions to the boil, turn the heat down to a slow simmer, cover the pan, and cook slowly for 30–35 minutes, until the onions are meltingly tender.
Remove the pan lid and turn up the heat for a few minutes to reduce the cooking liquid to a few tablespoons of intense, syrupy sauce.
SERVES 4
Recipe copyright © 2001 Catherine Mason | other sample recipes