Happy Lunar Year of the Rabbit & A Recipe

" Gong Xi Fa Cai! " to all celebrating Chinese New Year. The start of the lunar year falls on the 2nd of February this year. This is a biggy for most Chinese and there will be many family reunions. There is always lots of eating involved and besides traditions like the giving of 'ang pow' (monetary gifts in red packets symbolizing the wish of good tidings), there is the sharing of goodies, cakes and cookies.... especially pineapple tarts. Given that there's going to be no shortage of CNY cookie posts , I'm going away from the norm and featuring an onion jam recipe instead.

Onions? Yup, onions! I don't believe onions have any significance at all to the Chinese Lunar Year. It's just that this bunch of onions I had, started to sprout faster than I could use them (mistake of putting them by the window) and this particular onion started to cast a shadow resembling a Quasimodo-ish rabbit. As this is the turn of the Rabbit according to the Chinese Zodiac, it seemed fitting to use it as our greeting for this year..... and with it, a recipe with onions. Some things just seem to decide for themselves. Non traditional.. yup, that's me.

ONION JAM

INGREDIENTS

500 g red onions, sliced

15 g butter

50 ml balsamic vinegar

25 g brown sugar

salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1 sprig fresh thyme

METHOD

Melt butter in pan. Add onions, salt, pepper and thyme sprig.

Cook on low to medium heat until onions are soft and translucent, not browned.

Add sugar and vinegar and continue cooking on low heat until most of the liquid is absorbed by the onions and mixture is the consistency of jam.

Remove thyme sprig.

Store in clean jars and refrigerate.

Great for hors d'oeuvres or as an accompaniment to hamburgers in place of relish.

SHORTCRUST PASTRY

INGREDIENTS

10 oz plain flour

5 oz cold butter

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg + 1 tbs cold water

METHOD

Mix together flour and salt. Cut in cold butter until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add egg and water mixture a little at a time until dough holds together. Do not knead. Leave dough to rest for at least 30 mins. Roll dough out on a floured surface to about 2 mm thick. Cut out pastry with a round cookie cutter (I used a 4 1/2 cm diameter round cookie cutter) and press into a tartlet tray with holes measuring about 4 cm in diameter. You can of course make it into whatever size you like.

Prick base of pastry with a fork.

Bake blind about 10 - 12 mins or until the sides turn slightly golden at 180˚C.

Cool before filling.

TO ASSEMBLE TARTS:

Shortcrust pastry cups (recipe above)

Onion jam (recipe above)

Feta cheese / Blue cheese, crumbled

fresh thyme

Fill prepared pastry cups with onion jam. Top with crumbled feta cheese and garnish with a sprig of fresh thyme.

The flavors and textures are awesome!