Quick pickled onions (and ABC top 100 Australian Books)

 

In a busy weekend, one of the best  things I did was pickle red onions while listening to the countdown of the ABC Top 100 Australian Books.  I wish my life had more of these moments.  I really want to be able to slow down my life to create and embellish.  This was a double whammy with home made pickled onions making every meal better and books making life better!  So here are some reflections on the good things in life!

I have been making these quick pickled onions a lot lately.  It is fairly simple but I still need to just check my notes.  It has made this one of my essential posts to get published.  Above are my ingredients: red wine red onions, vinegar, salt, sugar, mustard seeds and black peppercorns.  The photo of these together illustrates the hotch-potch of containers in which I keep my pantry ingredients.

Making the pickled onions is very simple.  One of the most challenging parts is to slice the onion thinly.  Firstly I need to remember not to chop the onion in half first.  Whole rings of onion are so satisfying.  I love seeing the disk of sliced onion with the many rings telling a story of growth, just like the marks on a cross-section of a tree does.  After I had made my pickled onions a few times I saw that Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes blog, who inspired me to make these, pulls her onion rings apart.  I couldn't bear to break up those gorgeous swirly slices.  They come apart easily enough without help.

The pickling brine is easy.  Chuck a few things in a saucepan, bring it to the boil and pour over the jar of raw onions.  We have found that the colour of the pickled onions depends partly on their hue when raw.  I think that the colour might deepen over time too.  Pickled onions look so beautiful and brighten up any meal.

Pickled onions have added flavour and flair to thesen meals (listed in order of the photographs below):

• Rice bowl with Mexican spiced rice, chickpea tofu, marinated tempeh, tofu scramble, lettuce, grated carrot, cabbage.
• Snack plate with vita-wheat crackers, cheese, celery and red capsicum.
• Pizza with tomato sauce, mushrooms, red capsicum, olives, pineapple and cheese
• Bean Miso Pasta with peas, roasted pumpkin, broccolini, pickled onion.
  
  

The brilliant colour of pickled onions pops out from a bowl of coloured vegetables in such a pleasing manner.  It is such a simple way to really jazz up a meal.  I could have shared so many photos of meals here.  We add them to so many meals.  I limited myself to just a few.  You can see many more throughout my blog over the last few months.  In fact, I am worried my meal photos are getting a bit samey with wanting to put pickled onions on so many.  But that is a first world problem!

This above snack food photo is a good one to segue to the leisurely idea of listening to the ABC top 100 Australian books.  People were texting in how they were listening.  I too would have loved to have been crocheting with a cuppa tea, like some of the listeners.  Instead I grabbed moments when I could turn on the radio while driving to and from a family afternoon tea in Geelong and doing the dishes at home.  It was great to be part of a rare national moment that wasn't sport or politics.  

It is sad less and less people are into reading these days.  Busy lives and screens leave little room for picking up a book.  Last year I found I read an alarmingly small number of books (4).  I was so sad at the idea of a life without books that I have made more of an effort this year to read more.  There is nothing so satisfying as reading a book in bed before getting up in the morning.  I don't have time to read in bed all day until I finish the book as I used to when younger.  But I feel that reading makes me feel calmer and (mostly) more optimistic about the world.  It focuses me on our humanity rather than the terrifying apocalypse of angry politics, AI and violence in the news.
 

I also love a list.  The ABC has done quite a few top 100 book lists of different themes.  I particularly loved that this one was Australian authors, even those who are now ex-pats.  I poured over the BC Top 100 Australian Books list and counted how many I had read.  I think I have read half of them.  There were some books I am unsure if I have read or just seen so often or seen them on screen but I did not count these.  There were others I had meant to read, even one or two in my pile of books to read.  I had read 8 of the top ten, had to stop midway through one and always meant to read another.  

The idea of listening to a countdown of 100 books seems a bit dull.  I was impressed at how entertaining the ABC broadcast managed to be.  It was fascinating to hear them speak to the author or talk to those who knew them or played archival clips of their reflections.  I found it quite nostalgic to hear about books that were part of the story of my life.  The number one book was Cloud Street by Tim Winton which I marvelled at the evocative language and ramshackle family life when I read it as a student.  

These books were part of my childhood (Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner); written about at school (Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson); studied in university literature tutorials (The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead), discussed in book club (The Narrow Road to the Deep South by Richard Flanagan), loaned to me by my mum (The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams).  It made me proud to see some of the amazing Australian authors with multiple books in the list: Helen Garner, Hannah Kent, Geraldine Brooks, Anna Funder, Ruth Park and Mem Fox, to name just a few.  It makes me want to just sit and read for hours.  Which of course I haven't had (made) time for!
 

These pickled onions reminded me just how easy and satisfying it is to have picked vegetables in the kitchen.  They pep up everything: sandwiches, rice bowls, salads, pasta, risotto, casseroles, anything!  We have had them in the fridge most of the time over the past few months.  When I have been busy recently I didn't make them for a couple of weeks.  Then I had a sandwich with cheese, roast pumpkin, lettuce and mayo.  It was good but would have been so much better with pickled onions.  After that I whipped up a batch and wondered why it had taken me so long to make something so simple.  I know many people make these regularly and I am delighted to join the pickling posse!

More brown onion recipes (that could be converted to red onions) on Green Gourmet Giraffe:

Beetroot and caramelised onion galette with vegan mozzarella (v)  

Cheese and onion beer bread

Cheese, onion and potato pasties (Tiddly Oggies) 

Gravy (gf, v)    

No Tears Onion Soup - Turkish style 

Quick Pickled Onions
Adapted from Love and Lemons and Tinned Tomatoes
Makes about a 500ml jar

2 red onions
2/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
1/4 tsp mustard seeds

Trim, peel and finely slice onions.  (I do this with a chef's knife but it would also work with a mandolin).  Pile onions into a clean 500ml jar and set aside.  Heat remaining ingredients over high in small saucepan until it boils.  Pour slowly into the jar of onions, use a spoon to press the onions down into the liquid to make sure they are fully submerged.  Screw on the lid tightly.  Once cooled, store  in fridge for a few weeks.  Eat on everything!

Notes:

• You will end up with onion flavoured vinegar (brine) but it is a bit watered down.  
• My favourite thing so do with leftover brine is to reuse it for more pickled onions more than once.  The vinegar has lots of flavour but has been watered.  When I reuse it I usually add in some extra red vinegar.  If you want to measure, top it up with vinegar until you have 1 cup and 1 or 2 tbsp.  I then heat it until it comes to the boil and repeat pouring it over a jar of raw sliced red onions.  
• The leftover brine can also be used for salad dressing: I like to add some vinegar and olive oil and am still playing around with this.  I have also made a small amount of salad dressing when I have had a tablespoon or so that will not fit into the jar.

On the stereo:
Picaresque: Decembrists