Balsamic pickled shallots
By Barney Desmazery
Cooking time
Prep: 1 hr Cook: 30 mins Plus 3 days standingSkill level
EasyServings
4 x 500ml jarsPerfect partners for a creamy blue cheese
Nutrition and extra info
Additional info
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy-free
- Nut-free
- Egg-free
Nutrition per serving
- kcalories
- 25
- protein
- 1g
- carbs
- 3g
- fat
- 1g
- saturates
- 0g
- fibre
- 0g
- sugar
- 3g
- salt
- 0.26g
Ingredients
- 1½ kg small shallots or pearl onions
- 1l white wine vinegar
- 150ml olive oil
- 600ml water
- 140g golden caster sugar
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tsp black peppercorn, cracked
- 2 handfuls basil leaves
- 100ml balsamic vinegar
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Method
- Tip the shallots into a large bowl, pour over a kettleful of boiling water, leave to stand for a minute, then drain. When cool enough to handle, sit down, turn the radio on and get peeling.
- Set the peeled shallots aside and place all the other ingredients except the balsamic vinegar into a large saucepan. Bring to the boil, lower the heat, then simmer for 3 mins. Drop the shallots into the pan and simmer for 8-10 mins until just tender. Use a slotted spoon to scoop the shallots and basil out into sterilised jars (see Know-how, below), then boil the liquid vigorously for 5 mins. Turn the heat off, stir in the balsamic vinegar, then pour over the shallots to cover. Seal the jars and leave for at least 3 days. Will keep for up to 3 months.
Recipe from Good Food magazine, October 2008
Comments, questions and tips
Comments
Followed the recipe to the letter but have ended up with soft pickled onions and had to throw them all away! had some vinegar left over as ran out of shallots! Next day got some more and after peeling them poured the now cold vinegar over them. After three weeks absolutely perfect! Was it a wind up to simmer the vinegar mix with the onions in? I think it must be.
Hi Mandy, generally with pickles you soak what you want to preserve in a brine solution first to remove excess water so that the pickling solution isn't diluted. This recipe doesn't suggest this which is prob why they have a relatively short shelf life. I'm going to soak mine in a brine solution for 48 hours before hand. (For every 1.8kg of onions use 100g coarse salt with 1.2l of water.) Then after 48 hours i'll strain and rinse the onions thoroughly and drain until totally dry, put them in the jars and put over cooled pickling solution. (i'm not going to heat them in it) and hopefully this will keep them for longer. I'm using another recipe as my guide. Will post how long they keep for when i find out!