Pickling Onions 醃洋蔥

I got excited when I found these pearl onions in the shop. If I knew shallots would do the job I would've gone to the local wet market and get them a lot fresher, a lot more and for a lot cheaper. Oh well, next time.

醃洋蔥是英國的小吃，不是每個人都受得了那種洋蔥的味道但是喜歡的就會愛得很。直接和芝士，香腸一起當零食吃或者放在生菜沙律里是我個人的最愛。





Ingredients:
Baby Onions/Shallots (1 pound for my 1litre jar)
Salt (a lot of it, like 500grams)
Malt Vinegar (enough to fill the space in the jar, almost 1litre for me)
Pickling Spice:
       a pinch of: Mustard seeds, Coriander seeds, Cumin seeds, Black Peppercorns,
              1 or 2: Cloves, Bay leaves, dried Chilly, Cinnamon stick,
                     1: small slice of Ginger

Directions:
1. Peel the onions and cut off both ends.
2. Soak them in brine (500grams salt : 1litre water solution, simmer until all dissolved then cool),
    keep them submerged for up to 24hours (depending on size of onions and how crunchy you like
    them).
3. Simmer pickling spice in vinegar for 5 minutes, cool.
4. Drain and rinse onions and put them in sterilized jar (boil jar and lid for 3 minutes then cool), pour
    in the spiced vinegar then closed the lid. (I put in a piece of muslin cloth to keep the onions
    submerged)
5. Pop it in the fridge for a month.

Notes:
1. Everything has to be cool (brine, vinegar) if you like the onions crunchy.
2. Use a stainless steel or enamel pot to cook the vinegar, as metal reacts with vinegar. For the same
    reason if you use metal lid jars make sure the metal doesn't come in contact with vinegar.
3. When sterilizing jars, put the jars in cold water and slowly bring to a boil, and slowly cool them
    afterwards - be careful of glass cracking.
4. Pickling spice can also be bought. Or you can use nothing but black peppers. 

食材：
小洋蔥或紅蔥頭 （0.5kg 左右，我的玻璃罐容量一升）
鹽 （500g）
麥芽醋（1升左右，要能裝滿罐子的空間。也可以適量的試試其他醋，但是中國醋道幾乎都太
        濃。麥芽醋是最傳統的味道，蘋果醋甚麼的倒可以試一下）
醃製香料：芥末籽，芫茜籽，孖然（整顆），黑胡椒（整顆）適量
                    丁香，香葉，干辣椒，桂皮 1－2塊
                    薑 一小片

做法：
1，洋蔥剝皮切去兩頭
2，將洋蔥浸入鹽水中一晚（比例為 500g鹽：1升水，開水把鹽煮化了後冷卻）
3，將醃製香料和醋混合，小火滾5分鐘，冷卻
4，洋蔥洗淨後入罐，加入醋，可用細網布之類的壓在洋蔥上使其整個浸入（罐子和蓋子要
      消毒：開水里煮3分鐘以上）
5，封罐放入冰箱一個月

提示：
1，如果想要洋蔥脆口，所有與洋蔥接觸的液體都要冷卻，鹽水泡的時間也可縮短一點
2，用來煮醋的鍋子一定要不鏽鋼或者搪瓷的，金屬（銅鐵）會和醋發生反應。同理也要注意
      罐子如果有金屬蓋子，金屬的部份不可以和醋接觸
3，消毒罐子時把罐子放入冷水中一起慢慢加熱，之後再慢慢冷卻 － 玻璃會裂呀
4，混合好的醃製香料也是可以買的到的。不行甚至可以只用一些黑胡椒。