I'd like to serve pink pickled onions at an Indian Feast I'm going to serve.I can't find a supplier though (in the UK). Can you offer any suggestions?

Thanks,

Martin

Martin, add a little piece of beetroot to your pickling onion dressing. Once the liquid is pink, remove the beetroot piece. It is edible, you can eat it, instead of binning it :)!

I have used the vinegar from pickled red cabbage to get my onions pink, Worked very well.

To keep the onions crisp (if liked) add some calcium chloride. In America they call it 'pickle crisp'. Available on ebay, get food quality!

Thanks for your ideas. Do you start with pre-pickled onions?

Martin

if the question was for me, no, I start with raw (obviously peeled) small onions or shallots, and just pop them in the vinegar, no boiling or any other treatment. Works for me. I add about a teaspoonful of 'pickle crisp' per jar.

Other vinegars work well, too, like Balsamic and white wine.

Hi, particularly to Mamta & Helen who have taken the time to answer my previous questions on this subject. When it comes to serving theses onions would you serve them whole or sliced? If sliced, do you add the (beetroot) sauce at this stage.Also Mamta, in one of your replies you mentioned serving the onions with "their dressing". Would that be their pickling juice?

Thanks,

Martin

Good morning Martin

The Indian onion salad or onions in vinegar are different from the Pickled Onions you buy in a jar. No boiling is involved. It is more a salad thean a pickle.

If I am making onion salad with shallots, I would make them and serve them whole and make them either the same morning, or perhaps a day or two before I need them. Otherwise, it looses its crispness. There may or may not be some dressing in the serving bowl when served, generally not.

For salad, I make fresh sliced onions for use on that day. I make them in a bowl, so the dressing stays on them, in the bowl. They don't usually last till the next day.

As far as I know, restaurants in India also make them fresh. I have asked at a few good restaurants in Delhi and the answer is always, "we make them each morning".

I have not used 'pickle crisp', must keep my eye out for it when in shop next time. I tend not to add any chemicals/preservatives to my pickles, so never thought of it.

Mamta