Pickled Onions
It was restaurant day again on this weekend and for those of you who participated in it hopefully had fun. It is still difficult for me to participate in it with a little baby at home….but a foodie is a foodie. This time I arranged restaurant day for some friends at home.
With autumn ending and winter just knocking at our doors, month of November is in particular difficult with bare trees, grey sky and decreasing light every day. When it is wet and cold outside, all you want is some comforting food, which just warms you up.
The spicy Indian food is just perfect for this kind of weather. There are too many to mention but I simply love spicy and delicious street food that we get back in India. So, that is what I made for my dear friends on this restaurant day at home.
I wanted to post recipes of what we had but all the food was finished and there was not much left to make pictures. I will make them again and post recipes from some of them soon. In the meantime, here is the recipe of pickled onions, which we also had on Saturday and I made some extra for posting here.
Everyone loves pickled vegetables; they bring so much of flavor and zing to the food. In India, we also love to make pickles. There are many different ways that people do pickling, which varies from area to area and of course we use a lot of whole spices for pickling. I remember my mother making all sorts of pickles, with raw mangoes, cauliflower, carrots, turnips, lime, radish, not just for us but also some of her friends and relatives.
Another kind of pickles that we get in India are the ones made just with vinegar. The most common one to be pickled like this are red onions, called as sirke wali pyaaz. The sour and slightly sweet accompaniment is most commonly served in Indian restaurants.
This recipe is fusion of both kind of pickling methods. The spices fennel, fenugreek and nigella used in this recipe are quintessential for the pickles that I have seen my mother making in India.
Here I used small red onions but shallots or normal red onions (should be sliced) can be substituted. I added small amount of flavored apple cider vinegar…just loved the fruity punch.
Ingredients
400 g small red onions
150 ml white wine vinegar
50 ml peach flavored apple cider vinegar
50 ml water
70 g sugar
1 tsp Salt
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1/2 tbsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp nigella seeds
1/2 tsp black pepper corns
1 tsp red pepper corns
Notes
Normal apple cider vinegar can be substituted for flavored vinegar.
Method
Peel the onions and rinse them.
To pickle, add all the spices, sugar and salt with vinegar and water in a pan (non-metallic) and bring it to boil. Simmer it for 5 minutes and let it cool down. Cover the pan with a lid (30 minutes-1 hour) to infuse the spices.
In a glass container add the onions to the pickling liquid and leave it overnight in the fridge. Onions can be used next day. Refrigerate them for longer storage.
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Resting Time: Overnight