Sweet and sour shallots
Shallots are baked with garlic, butter, thyme, raisins, sugar, a little cinnamon and – crucially – sherry vinegar to become stickily sweet-and-sour and meltingly soft. They are delicious to serve either warm or cold alongside pork dishes, beef or goats cheeses.
(Note the Reserva vinegar in the recipe could be swapped for Barbadillo Vinagre de Jerez Reserva al Pedro Ximenez.)
To serve: 4
Time: approx 1 hour
500g small round shallots
3 garlic cloves
5 thyme sprigs 11/2 tsp ground cinnamon
80g raisins 11/2 tbsp soft brown sugar
30g butter
50ml olive oil
75ml Barbadillo Vinagre de Jerez Reserva or Barbadillo Vinagre de
Jerez Reserva Ecologico
Preheat the oven to 190C.
Peel the shallots and sit them in a baking dish that will hold them tightly in a single layer. Add the whole garlic cloves in their skin, along with the thyme, ground cinnamon, raisins and sugar. Cut the butter into small pieces and dot over. Pour over the olive oil plus 50ml water. Season with salt and mix everything together well.
Put the dish into the oven and bake until the shallots are tender and the sauce a sticky glaze. It will take 40 – 50 minutes. Stir a couple of times as the shallots bake.
Squeeze the tender garlic flesh out of the skins, and mix the garlic into the raisin sauce. Now discard the garlic skins and thyme sprigs.
Serve straight away, or store in the fridge in a sterilised jar.
