Author Notes
I am fairly obsessed with caramelized onions and roasted garlic and try to keep a jar of this compote in the fridge all the time. It’s terrific on pizza, tossed into pasta with cheese, mixed with some good olive oil, more balsamic vinegar and some herbs as a salad dressing, or as a base for onion soup. The recipe is presented in ratios so you can scale it up or down as you wish. As shown here, it makes about 1.5 cups of compote. —Burnt Offerings
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Ingredients
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For every two pounds of onions, you will need the following:
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1
head of garlic
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1 tablespoon
unsalted butter
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1 tablespoon
extra virgin olive oil
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1 teaspoon
kosher salt
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1 tablespoon
brown sugar
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1 tablespoon
balsamic vinegar
Directions
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Preheat oven to 400 degrees
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Remove the paper from the head of garlic and slice ¼ off the top of the bulb, exposing the cloves, but don’t separate or peel them.
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Place the head of garlic on a square of tin foil and gather it up around the bulb of garlic so the top can be twisted shut.
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Before closing, drizzle a TBL of olive oil onto the head of garlic.Twist up the foil and roast the head of garlic in the oven for 40 minutes, or until the cloves are soft and the shade of a dirty Californian blonde.
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While the garlic is roasting, thinly slice the onions – a mandolin makes short work of this.
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Melt the butter and remaining olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.
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Add the onions, salt them, and stir to coat them thoroughly with the butter and olive oil.
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Let the onions cook down until soft, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Continue cooking onions for another 30-35 minutes until they are a deep mahogany brown – add a little water if they start to stick.
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In the last 5 minutes, add the brown sugar and balsamic vinegar and stir until well dissolved and caramelized - about 2 minutes.
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Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves from their skins into a small bowl and mash into a paste. Add some olive oil if needed.
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Mix the roasted garlic paste into the caramelized onions.
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Put into a sealed container. The mixture will keep, refrigerated, up to 3 weeks.
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