My international Thanksgivings have been, I think, my favorites. In the US, where Thanksgiving day so easily turns into a day of obligations, stress and over-eating, the holiday has lost its novelty. It’s bundled into the whole “holiday season” where, as a nation, we worry about our waistlines and hurry to finish the Christmas shopping.

When you celebrate Thanksgiving overseas, it’s something else entirely. Rather than an obligation, it becomes a small moment outside of the daily grind – a special dinner shared among friends. Of course it’s primarily Americans, but over the years there’s been a mix of Germans, Danes, South Africans, Australians, and others who have turned out to help us all celebrate our national holiday.   It is less a day about America, and more a time to celebrate friendship and the lives we’ve carved out for ourselves here in Berlin.

I’ll never forget my first German Thanksgiving. It was only a few weeks after I moved to Berlin, and I’d been lucky enough to land amongst a group of people who quickly became close friends. We were an international group of young, broke, bohemian-artist types, most living far away from our families, and all eager for an excuse to celebrate. The three of us in our flat cooked up a storm (as well as we could manage in a tiny shared kitchen).

We were so low on space that we ended up thawing the bird on the hallway radiator. My friend Vanessa cooked green bean casserole, and when she couldn’t find deep-fried onion crisps in the store, she bravely made her own. Oddly enough, I don’t remember anymore what I cooked.  But the highlight for me was the dish our Danish friends brought – tiny fingerling potatoes boiled in sugar water until the outsides were slightly candied.  Strange, unique, and something I never would have experienced in the States.

This year, we’re celebrating Thanksgiving at my friend Nadahl’s place. He regularly throws dinner parties for our whole motley group of friends, and is a wonderful cook. It’s a running joke between us, though, that my pasta salad beats his every time. (I’m supposed to bring it to Thanksgiving dinner, in fact. And I probably will.) But I’m also bringing my own little surprise – Gingery Onion Chutney.

Several months ago, I somehow wound up with a jar of this in my possession, and since then I’ve been dying to try making more. This weekend I finally had the chance.
The trick with this recipe is to start with way more onions than you think you’ll need, and cook them way longer than you think you should. The result is a pot full of dark brown, carmelized onions with a deep, rich flavor. It tastes amazing with a big chunk of fresh bread and a strongly-flavored cheese.

Gingery Onion Chutney

Start with a pot nearly overflowing with raw onions. This will cook down more than you’d expect, and once you start chopping the onions you might as well keep going.

Ingredients:

5 lbs onions (or as much as will fit in your large cooking pot)
Two thumb-sized pieces of fresh ginger, or even more if you like
1 Tbs butter
4 Tbs brown sugar
3-4 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1 tsp black pepper, or more to taste
2 tsp salt

1. Chop the onions finely
You can toss them into the pot as they are chopped – it isn’t essential that they go in at the same time, and your cutting board would probably overflow if you were to try it!

2. Grate the Ginger
You can use a fancy ceramic ginger grater if you have one. If not, pull out the trusty cheese grater and use the extra fine side.

3. Seasonings!
Drop the butter in the pot, then sprinkle in the brown sugar, pepper, vinegar, and salt.

4. Make it Marmalade
Cook over very low heat for two to three hours. Stir it more often at the beginning so everything cooks evenly, then every twenty minutes or so for the remainder of the cooking time. The onions will gradually begin to turn dark brown and carmelize. The chutney is finished when it is a rich brown and the onions are completely soft and spreadable.