Add a splash: a sweet, sherry vinegar will enhance this simple oven-baked dish.
If you can find the Forum Spanish Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar (slightly sweet), this would be perfect, here. If you use it, then omit the teaspoon of sugar. Sherry vinegar is also lovely with the onions and, similarly, you can also find a sweetened version of this.
Please don’t use red onions for this recipe as they turn an unappetising grey colour once cooked; the flavour might be fine, but the look of the thing suffers slightly as a result.
Roast onions recipe (serves 4)
Ingredients
25g dripping or half butter and oil
4 large onions, peeled and cut into quarters
1tspn sugar
Salt and pepper
50ml red-wine vinegar 100ml beef or chicken stock
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/ gas mark 4.
Heat the dripping or oil and butter in an ovenproof dish or tray that will accommodate the onions snugly and also happily sit on a naked flame. Once the fat is lightly sizzling, put in the onions, cut side down.
Gently cook until lightly coloured and turn over. Sprinkle with the sugar and seasoning, then pour in the vinegar. Allow the vinegar to bubble away to almost nothing and then pour in the stock.
Bring up to the boil and put into the oven, loosely covered with foil. Bake for 30–40 minutes, until soft.
Turn the oven temperature up to 230°C/450°F/gas mark 8, remove the foil and bake for a further 10 minutes or so, until the surfaces are blemished by golden-brown blisters.
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