Nothing says Washington State like sweet onions, apples, stone fruit, blackberries, Dungeness crab, lavender and of course…. rain. Just to name a few.
Seattle is a culinary heaven. James Beard award-winning chefs, a divine selection of restaurants that garner national attention, organic and sustainable farms and ranches, food artisans, and of course a wealth of fabulous food bloggers.
To celebrate these delightfully food passionate people, Keren Brown, Author of Food Lover’s Guide to Seattle and the food blog Frantic Foodie, created the local event called Foodportunity.
This past June, I had the opportunity to attend a Foodportunity event with my good friend and fellow blogger, Maria, from Pink Patisserie.
As I was walking up the stairs in the Pan Pacific Hotel, who did I run into but one of my fave Seattle Food Bloggers and fellow farm girl at heart, Janelle from Talk of Tomatoes. The day was off to a brilliant beginning.
And to think I almost didn’t attend. I’m not much of a social butterfly. I love meeting new people, but placed in a room full of people makes me break out into a serious sweat.
Where do I start? Who do I talk to first? So, I casually saunter over to the food table. Although I wish my saunter were a bit more “look at me glide across the room in these heels”. But it’s not. It’s sort of a march, I just prefer the word saunter. In a few paragraphs down I use the word mosy. I like that word too.
While standing at the food table, with a mouth full of food, I met Erina, from the blog, Shut Up and Cook. Cool title huh? Erina is a dynamo. She’s a hot tamale, firecracker, and ready to set the food writing world on fire. And maybe the airwaves too. Erina is a competitor in a local food event developed by our very own Theirry Rautreau, Kitchen Circus. Check it out and cheer Erina on!
After polishing off seconds of the quail egg and salmon apps, I decided to “mosy” on over to the wine table. One must sample the wine at these events 🙂
Lucky for me, en route to the wine table I ran into Emmy, from Emmy Cooks and Alyssa, from Everyday Maven. Lovely ladies with delicious and creative food blogs, who I now consider my good foodie friends.
I left that day feeling pretty darn good. I even won a cook book! That never happens.
I’m still not a social butterfly, but I do love a good Foodportunity. Especially when there’s really great food. And of course wine. 🙂
Sweet Onion Marmalade with Pork Chops
Makes about 1 ½ cups marmalade (recipe can be doubled)
Ingredients
3 large sweet onions, halved and thin sliced (I used Walla Walla)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons brown mustard seeds
¼ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
Sprig of fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
Directions
Heat the butter over medium heat in a heavy bottom sauté or sauce pan. When the butter is melted add the onions and brown mustard seeds. Let the onions cook down for about 10 minutes and then add the sprig of thyme.
Simmer the onions until they are golden brown, about 30-35 minutes.
Stir in the brown sugar and vinegar and let the onions simmer for another 15-30 minutes depending on how caramelized you like your onions. My marmalade simmered for about an hour.
Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper.
Lovely additions to this marmalade are dried cherries, cranberries, currents or raisins.
Serve with grilled or pan seared pork chops, roast pork loin, roast pork tenderloin or slow cooked pork shoulder.
Related articles
- Peach Marmalade and Tomato Braised Pork Steaks (thehungrygiant.net)
- Recipe: Orange Marmalade Pork Roast (elizababble.wordpress.com)
- Roasted Pork Chops With Drunken Honeycrisp Apples (theflycandypost.com)
I’d like to try to make this marmalade. Thank you Karista.
You are so welcome Rosemary! Enjoy Germany 🙂
Scrumity! What a fantastic idea to pair pork chops with onion marmalade. Fab marmalade recipe!
I too am not much of a social butterfly so kudos to you and what fun you had too.
🙂 Mandy
I adore our group of food bloggers here in Seattle. I’m so glad I went! Enjoy the marmalade. I smear it on everything 🙂
You are so sweet!! My head is expanding by the moment…send help if it gets so big I can’t leave my office. Mwah!!
Hahaha!! I’ll be on stand by Erina 🙂 And Mwah! back at ya!
I already told you on Facebook how much I love the sounds of this, but had to tell you here too. 🙂 Delicious!! I didn’t realize how foodie-licious WA State was until I moved to Australia. They’re coming along beautifully too, but NOTHING beats the freshness and wholesomeness and variety of ingredients available in WA. 🙂
Thanks Krista! We do love our fresh food here and we’re so lucky to have an abundance of local farms and ranches. Are you originally from Washington State?
This is my kind of onion recipe!
I could eat this right out of the jar! 🙂
I’ve become addicted to a carmelized red onion chutney from a local grocery chain and I put it on EVERYTHING. And, my husband always comments on the amount that I add to EVERYTHING. Sooooooo, I’m sure it is not surprizing that I can’t wait to try your marmelade recipe. I’m sure I won’t save on the calories, but maybe it’ll save me a few dollars by making my own.
PS — I imagine you sashaying across the floor rather than mosying. You seem so outgoing!
Hahaha! My Paternal Grandmother was extremely proper and gave my sister and I little charm school lessons when we visited. Needless to say I failed miserably. I can set a table and eat with my mouth closed and I do love people, just not crowds. My sashay is not attractive, more like a mosy. LOL!
I know what you mean about the onion chutney! I had some at a restaurant a while back, couldn’t find any at my market so decided I’d make some. I’m so hooked! And I put it on everything too. 🙂
I’m definitely making a jar of this! I can think of so many ways to enjoy it! I’m like you.. I find a room full of people daunting at first.. but a few glasses of wine and things seem to go much better, lol! I’m off to see your friend’s blogs! What a wonderful opportunity to meet everyone!! xx
Hahaha! Smidge, that’s really what I wanted to say. A few glasses of wine and a crowd looks much smaller. 🙂 I’ve so enjoyed connecting with these ladies. So sweet, so fun, just a great group of women.
It’s so much fun catching up with fellow food bloggers, love the marmalade
Thank you! I agree catching up with local fellow food bloggers is so much fun and inspiring. Now, to figure out how I can meet up with all my international food blogging friends. 🙂
What a great event and a fantastic recipe 🙂
Thanks Tandy!
Hi Karista… I hear you. You will find me hovering over the hors d’oeurves every time. Regardless, i look forward to checking out the Seattle food blog scene and would enjoy meeting a few people.
I just cooked two mammoth pork chops last night with something similar to your marmalade.. Just a little apple and fennel along with. But what I missed was the apple cider vinegar to pick it up.
Oh yum! I so adore apple and fennel together! Hope you blog that one. Yes, the vinegar does elevate the flavors I think, I even add a dash of vin to many of my soups and stews just to bring those flavors together especially if the stew or soup hasn’t had much simmer time on the stove. I guess you could say its a little cheat :). Learned it from another chef. Love those little tricks haha! Hope all is fabulous on Orcas. Let me know when you get to Seattle and maybe we could catch up over coffee.
Thank you for including my recipe. 🙂
You’re so welcome Elizabeth!
Beautiful recipe that I have bookmarked for a beautiful fall day. It is definitely on the list of recipes to try.
Thanks Richard! I too have a blogger recipe list going. So many delicious recipes to try! 🙂
Oh Karista, this marmalade sounds absolutely divine coupled with a nice, juicy pork chop… mmmm. I can also relate to your avoidance of social situations. I typically appear quite outgoing, but by nature I’m actually pretty shy. The wine helps though 🙂 Sounds like the event was definitely a success!!
Hahaha! I hear ya! A little cocktail and the room doesn’t seem so crowded. 🙂 It was a great event and I really do enjoy getting together with all the fabulous foodies here in Seattle. I’d love to put together a National or even International Foodie event just so I can meet all my fave food bloggers around the world.