This ingredient is not hard to find, almost every family has it.
“Meat fat, spring onion, red calligraphy couplets. Vietnamese people have always been familiar with these lines since ancient times. Along with meat fat and square sticky rice cake, pickled onions are also an indispensable dish in Tet meals. This dish symbolizes a wish for a prosperous and abundant year.
Salted onions are made during the winter, when the onions are harvested from the flower season, to be ripe just in time for Tet, with a slightly sour taste and not too pungent. In the Tet feast, besides the rich and protein-rich dishes like chicken and pork sausage, the crunchy and fragrant pickled onions cannot be missing.
Moreover, in traditional medicine, onion is highly valued for its health benefits, antibacterial properties, and its positive effects on the digestive system.
Although pickled onions are a familiar dish, not everyone knows how to make them crispy and last long. Below is a recipe for pickled onions that you can refer to for this Tet.
How to Choose Good Purple Onions for Pickling
Good purple onions are usually medium-sized onions with evenly dried outer skin, firm texture when held. The outer skin is bright purple, evenly colored, and the inside is plump.
To make delicious pickled onions, you should choose purple onions with intact and undamaged outer skin. Avoid soft, watery, or moldy onions. The best choice is Ly Son onions, as this type of purple onion has a spicier and crunchier taste compared to other types, suitable for pickling.
Ingredients:
– 1 kg of onion bulbs
– 1.5 liters of distilled water
– 70 grams of salt
– 1 tablespoon of white sugar
– 1 tablespoon of vinegar or white wine
Preparation:
Choose round onions to reduce the pungent taste and shorten the pickling time.
After buying the onions, soak the whole onions in a container of rice water for about 1 night. After soaking, take out the purple onions, use your hands to peel off the skin and cut off a part of the outer roots. Note that you shouldn’t cut off all of the onion roots, as it will make the pickled onions susceptible to spoilage and rot.
After cleaning, soak the onions for another 5 minutes in a diluted saltwater solution, then rinse again with clean water and let them drain.
After buying fresh ginger, use a knife to remove the outer skin, wash it with water, and then finely chop it.
For chili peppers, remove the stem, wash them, and slice them thinly.
Soak the onions in water after slicing to avoid eye irritation. Rinse the onions well and let them drain.
Salty Pickled Onions with a Crispy, Clear Texture
1. Boil the mixture of water, sugar, and salt. You can adjust the amount of salt to your taste, but make sure the mixture is slightly flavorful.
2. When the water-salt mixture is still warm, you can add 1 tablespoon of white wine to enhance the flavor, reduce foaming, and help preserve the dish for longer. Because white wine with its high alcohol content helps sterilize, preserve the flavor, and maintain the crispness of the dish.
3. To prevent the pickled onions from floating, you should sterilize and dry the glass jar before pickling. Then, put the onions into the jar and pour the prepared water mixture in until all the onions are submerged.
4. Use a bamboo grid or a heavy object to press the onions down into the water.
5. Let the pickled onions sit for about 7 – 10 days if the weather is warm, or longer if it is cold or the onions are older.
6. After tasting and being satisfied with the pickled onions, you can scoop them out and soak them in a diluted saltwater solution to preserve them for longer.
Before eating, you can remove the outer skin, trim the top and root of the onions to make them look more appealing. You can also add a little fish sauce to the plate of pickled onions before enjoying to enhance the flavor.
Note that the use of white wine in the water-salt mixture depends on each family’s taste preference.
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