We are going to pickle our shallots for the 1st time and I would be grateful if anyone has any tips or advice.Ideally we would like them crisp and with a strong flavour so any advice to achieve this is most welcome ;D.
Hundreds of recipes, but I think I shall give Delia's sherry vinegar one a go this year.
At least she emphasises the long preparation & drying before bottling.
For strength? Ginger. mustard, cinnamon etc?
From personal experience, to get 'crisp' pickled onions/shallots (o/s), the brining process is the most important.
I 'wet brine,' ie when the o/s are peeled put them in a solution of 2oz salt to one pint of water to 1lb o/s, and leave them overnight. Next day, take out of the solution, rinse and dry on kitchen paper. Pack into jars and cover with whatever vinegar recipe you choose to use.
The other brining method is to 'dry' brine them. I have never used this method, but it entails laying the o/s out on a non-metallic tray, covering them with salt, and leaving them overnight. I don't know the ratio of salt to lb o/s. Next day rinse off the salt and dry the o/s with kitchen paper, and pack in jars (as above).
Depending on the recipe you use, you can make sweet/spicy pickles.
I have in the past used spiced malt vinegar (my own spicing as opposed to ready spiced), and put a couple of dried chillies in the jars.
I think my tastes are changing, as of late these onions seem to have been nice and spicy, but 'rather harsh'.
I am thinking of going down the 'sweeter' pickle-line!! (as in Tim's suggestion of Delia's sherry vinegar).
Hope the above helps.
Whatever you do, it will knock the socks off the soggy rubbish you can buy.
valmarg
I've always used the recipe I found on the net here
http://www.recipecottage.com/preserving/pickled-onions13.html
with Sarson's ready-seasoned pickling vinegar instead of doing it myself. (Though I tend to add bay leaves anyway!) This has an overnight brining; I tend to do 24h as I'll leave them to soak one weekday evening and complete the process the following night, being out working all day :)
I can say that it definitely works. I cracked open some from Sept 2004 only ast night and they were still decently crisp! Probably not as much as had they been only 2-3 months old, but no complaints from me or the SO.
moonbells
One piece of advice I would give is to stick to the safe proportions of vinegar when pickling onions or shallots, i.e. for every kg of shallots used, make sure there is a minimum of 1/3 litre of vinegar surrounding them.
We love the sweet/crisp one from 'Preserved' by Sandler/Acton (page 110):
3 lb small pickling onions or shallots
2 oz sea salt
Several cloves and blades of mace
2 fresh chillis, halved (extra points for growing your own )
14 oz sugar
2 pints white wine vinegar
Just trim tops and bottoms of shallots (so they don't fall apart in the pickle). Leaving skin on, pour boiling water over them and leave for 20 seconds. Then cover with cold water and peel them under water. This will prevent the surfaces oxidising and toughening up.
Layer the onions in a clean bowl, sprinkling each layer with salt. Cover with a clean cloth and leave overnight. The salt will draw out much of their moisture, hence the 'crunch' (this is valmarg's 'dry brining')
Next day, rinse well and dry them as thoroughly as possible. Place in sterilised jars (roughly) with two cloves, a blade of mace and half a chilli in each (assuming you use four jars).
Boil up sugar and vinegar for a minute, then pour the hot liquid over the onions. Seal the jars and wait 2-3 weeks before eating. They will keep for at least six months.
We use more chillis if we have them ;)
Enjoy! :D
Hey SS, glad you loves them as that is the exact same recipe I used when pickling my mini hunions! ;D
heheheh so I know where to come if we run short EJ ;) ;D