Balsamic Glazed Onions

Balsamic Glazed Onions

Ingredients
1 and 1/2 lb golf-ball sized spring onions (or cippolini onions if available)
1/3 c of sugar
4 T unsalted butter
2 T water
1/2 c balsamic vinegar
zest of 1 lemon
4 bay leaves
3 c chicken or vegetable broth (I used beef broth I had on hand)
salt and pepper to taste

1. Par boil onions in a pot of boiling water for about 1 minute, drain and rinse in ice water to stop cooking. Remove the outer skin. (if you peel the outer layer off while trimming you can omit this step. I just helps loosen the outer skin layer.)
2. Mix the lemon zest with the bay leaves and set aside.
3. Put 1/3 cup of sugar in a large saute pan in a little mound. Add 2 T of water to it.
4. Gently melt the sugar water under a moderate heat without stirring it. Move the pan so the undissolved sugar circulates around until it forms a light amber colored caramel... Take the pan off the heat and carefully stir in the butter... ...and the balsamic vinegar. (The caramel will harden up and you'll have hard crunchy bits of sugar. This is okay as you'll see.)
5. Put the pan back on the heat and stir until the caramel is melted again. When the caramel has melted down again, add in the onions, the lemon zest, and the bay leaves. Stir everything around, and add in the broth.
6. Bring the whole thing to a boil, then add salt and pepper to taste, turn the heat down and let everything simmer over a low heat until the onions are glazed and the liquid is syrupy.

This takes about 1 and 1/2 hour.

I would make the balsamic reduction without the onions as a sauce for steak, pork tenderloin, even fried potatoes!