Welcome to the culinary shelves in our library!
Welcome to the culinary shelves in our library! |
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As you may or
not know, pickled onions in England are
crispy and crunchy and full of flavor, and they delightfully complement cold meats and
cheeses. Ah .... my mouth is starting to water as I pen these words. Sad to relate, American onions seem to leave one somewhat unfulfilled, so here for the very first time is my mother's recipe for Pickled Onions That Bite Back! |
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| First of all you need to acquire your onions, which may be easier said than done. What you are looking for is baby onions ("plucked from their mother's apron strings," as they say) that are approximately 3/4 to one inch in diameter when peeled. (Note that smaller onions work equally well, but they're a swine to peel.) | Beware! If you're under 21, male, or a politician, don't attempt to do anything on the culinary front without your mother's permission and supervision, because kitchens contain sharp things, hot things, and a variety of other potentially dangerous things! | |
| As to quantities, who can say? I can tell you the relative quantities ("so much of this to so much of that"), but as to the actual quantities, this all depends on how many jars of the little rascals you intend to lay away. In fact you'll find that this is one of those slippery recipes that you sort of "grow into" (you'll see what I mean as we proceed). All we can say is to remember that "2 teaspoons = 1 dessertspoon" and "2 dessertspoons = 1 tablespoon," and then purchase as much of the following ingredients as you think you'll need (you'll also need an appropriate supply of small-ish mason jars or similar): | ||
| Lots of small pickling (pearl) onions | Colman's English Mustard (the yellow powder type) | |||
| A handful of habaņeros (hot peppers) | Hard brown sugar | |||
| Heinz apple cider vinegar | Salt and ground black pepper |
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First of all, there's an art to cooking, and it starts by doing the washing up you've been putting off all day and putting all of the pots away. |
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Peel the onions and soak them overnight in salt water (1 tablespoon of salt per pint of water). |
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The next morning, sterilize your mason jars (I boil them for ten minutes), drain your onions, and fill the jars with the onions to about 1/2 an inch from the top. |
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Mix as much pickling solution as you think you'll need using the following proportions .... for each pint of apple cider vinegar add 1 dessertspoon of the powdered mustard, 5.5 ounces of brown sugar, one dessertspoon of salt (flat, not heaped), and 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper. |
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Shake the pickling mixture well until everything that's going to dissolve has dissolved, and then pour it over the onions in the jars (leave 1/4 inch gap at the top). |
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Finely dice one habaņero for each jar of onions and add them to the jars (adding the habaņero is optional, but all my friends prefer the recipe this way). Screw on the lids, shake each jar well, then put them on the back shelf of your refrigerator and leave for around 4 weeks (I tend to give the little rapscallions a good shake every now and again whenever I think about it). Ooohhh, you are in for a mega-treat let me tell you! |
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Wash up all of the knives, chopping boards, and everything else you've used and put them all away, then wipe down all of your working surfaces. Trust me - you'll feel better when everything is clean and tidy - have I ever lied to you before? (Don't answer that!) |
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| You won't believe your taste-buds when they sing to you (in four-part
harmony) just how tasty these little rascals can be. You can use them to enhance all sorts
of cold meats (chicken, beef, ham, pork, lamb, ...) and most cheeses, or you can simply
serve them in a bowl and spoon a few onto the side of your salad plate. However you serve
them, I think they'll be a huge success with your guests, the only problem being that
you'll receive numerous requests to "please
lay up a few extra jars as presents the next time you make them." As one final point, you can also use the above recipe to pickle garlic. This may sound a bit weird to many people, but pickled garlic is a lot milder than you might expect, and it goes amazingly well with meats such as cold roast beef. The only point to consider is that you need to leave it in the jars about twice as long as for the onions before it's ready to rock and roll -- Enjoy! |
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