Pickled Red Onions

They’re tasty! They’re versatile! They’re not rocket science! Seriously, this is my favorite use of red onions ever. Did I mention they’re beautiful, too? Beautiful . . . onions?

Cooking for two, I’m often left with “half an onion,” and this is a good use for leftover red onion. (Of course, you can use white or yellow onion, but those won’t be as pretty.)

It’s not so much a recipe as an idea that leads to more ideas. Here we go.

Pickled Red Onions: Is This a Recipe?

This will make 1 cup.

Start with a standard 8 oz. (1 cup) Mason jar or equivalent. To prevent your refrigerator from smelling like onions, you want to use a jar that has a good, tight lid. (Since the lid will forever smell like onions, I have one that I use over and over for this purpose.)

You’ll be using half a medium red onion, so cut it in half (pole to pole). Wrap up and put away the half you’re not using. (Maybe you can put it in some fresh pineapple salsa, or cooked kale, or something.)

Then, using your sharpest knife, slice the onion into the thinnest slices you can manage. I like to do the cuts lengthwise (again, pole to pole), but if you want to cut the other way and make thin little half-circles, that’s up to you.

As you’re cutting up the onion, poke the slices into the jar. Pack it pretty tight. Hopefully, it will all fit. (Erf!) Obviously, use your common sense here. Don’t smash it or bust it up too much. After about a day, the onions will have softened up and the liquid increased, so you might be able to stuff the rest into the jar after a few hours. (Or, find another use for the leftovers. Put them in an omelet?)

Red wine vinegar: Pompeian is a decent brand. Gluck that into the onion-filled jar until you see it coming about halfway up the side.

Sugar: add about 1 teaspoon.

Salt: add a good pinch.

Optional: thyme or tarragon are both good choices. But as little dark specks, they kind of detract from the jewel-like brilliance of the pickles.

Hot water: run the faucet so the water gets good and hot. Then use that to fill up the rest of the jar, to cover the onions.

Now, put the lid on the jar (tightly), and shake it like crazy to get the sugar and salt dissolved, and to get the onions kind of separated and well-bathed in the brine.

Store in the refrigerator overnight. Next day, admire the beautiful red color and notice how the texture has softened and yet crisped (the magic of pickling). If you don’t like the flavor, you can amend it to your taste. (Is it too tart? —then add a little more sugar. Etc.)

This will last several weeks in the refrigerator, but you'll eat it up before that.

What’s It Good For?

More like, what isn’t it good for! In a single relish, you get oniony flavor, vinegar tartness, sweet, and salty. Here are some suggestions.

• As a relish or garnish for anything “Mediterranean.” If you’d have Kalamata olives, hummus, or feta cheese with a meal, serve these as well. It’s outstanding as a garnish. It is very nice on canapés, too.
• Similarly, it goes well with Mexican foods. It’s great on tacos.
• On a salad. The pickling takes the edge off of the onions, so you don’t have that disagreeable onion afterburn.
• On a sandwich. On a hamburger. On a pizza. On a hot dog.
• As a relish with grilled chicken or seafood.
• Do you make avocado toast? If you haven’t tried it, you should. It’s an easy, tasty, and healthy light breakfast. There are lots of ways to make it, but one of my favorites is very simple: mix some minced pickled red onions, plus a little of their juice, with the chopped fresh avocado. Maybe add more salt. Garnish with more pickled onions on top. If you have kalonji (nigella) seeds, sprinkle a few of them on, too. Or you could use coarsely ground black or red pepper or chopped fresh cilantro. When serving this for two, I usually present the avocado mix (basically, a guacamole) in the cereal bowl I prepared it in. Then, I divide the whole-grain toasts onto each of our plates, and we spoon the avocado mix onto our toasts as we eat.
• I haven’t used it in a potato salad, but I’ll bet that would be good, too.

Easy and Reliable Kimchi

My kimchi is ready! It finished fermenting and I packed it into jars: Now I’m having a hard time keeping out of it! The recipe comes from my friend Bonnie, who calls it “bomb-proof”—but even more compelling than that is the addictive, fresh flavor of the finished product.



Before I pass along the recipe, I want to give you some sense of its provenance. Bonnie’s brother Jim, who lives in Washington, D.C., sent the recipe to her about a decade ago. He created the recipe from instructions he got from two people: An octogenarian named Mr. Woo, who owned a dry cleaning shop and convenience store in Dupont Circle, and a friend’s wife, Sue, who is Korean.

Bonnie suggests we call it “Jim Woo Sue’s Kimchi,” or perhaps “Woo Sue Jim’s Kimchi,” for a more chronological lineage. Or, I suppose, “Woo Sue Jim Bonnie’s Kimchi,” since I got it from her!

And I’m grateful to her for sharing it with me!

I’ve amended a few details, not very important ones (for example, I prefer smaller chunks, so I’ve given a range of chopping sizes).

See the notes below the recipe for additional ideas.



Easy and Reliable Kimchi

3 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. Kosher salt (divided)
6 c. water
1 lg. head (approx. 2 lbs.) Napa cabbage, cut in ½–2 inch squares
6 green onions, slivered lengthwise, then cut in 1–2 inch lengths
1–2 tbsp. minced fresh ginger (see note below)
2 T Korean ground dried hot red pepper (see note below)
3–4 minced garlic cloves (I use a garlic press)
1 tsp. sugar

1. Dissolve 3 tbsp. salt in water to make a brine. Put the cabbage in a large glass bowl and pour the brine over it. Weigh the cabbage down with a heavy plate or glass pie pan (or similar nonreactive object). Let it stand (at room temperature) for 12 hours.

2. Drain the cabbage, reserving the brine. Mix the cabbage with the remaining ingredients, including the remaining 1 tsp. salt. Pack the mixture into a 2-quart jar (or two 1-quart jars) (wide-mouth jars are a good idea). Pour enough reserved brine over the mix to cover it. Push a freezer bag into the mouth of the jar and pour remaining brine (or fresh water) into the bag to seal it. Set the jar(s) in a Pyrex baking dish (or similar nonreactive tray) to catch any brine that might bubble out. Let it ferment in a cool place (less than or equal to 68 degrees F) for 3 to 6 days, or until it’s as sour as you like.

3. Remove the brine bag and cap the jar(s) tightly. Store it in the fridge, where it will keep for months.



Notes

What do I eat it with? Bonnie says this pairs well with foods that are spicy, smoky, or rich, such as barbecue, chili, smoked fish, canned tuna, and so on. Basically, think of this as another kind of pickle or relish to enjoy. Plus, of course it goes well with Korean foods!

Minced fresh ginger. Asian recipes got a whole lot easier for me when I started batch-processing fresh ginger ahead of time and freezing it flat in a thin layer in a freezer zip bag. I described the process when I told you about a cantaloupe sorbet recipe.

Dried hot red pepper. The recipe calls for the Korean kind, but I used a combination of “regular” crushed red chili flakes and Indian ground red chilis. You must use your best judgment, based on your own heat preference and how hot your dried chilis are. (You can always add some chili and make it hotter, but it’s hard to do the reverse.)

Alternate veggies. Bonnie says this recipe works with lots of different kinds of cole and root vegetables. I’ll bet thin-sliced bok choi, turnips, or cucumbers would be good variations.

On a grilled cheese sandwich. Bonnie loves to caramelize the kimchi and put it on a grilled cheese sandwich. She caramelizes it by chopping ¼ cup of the kimchi rather finely and mixing it with 1 tsp. brown sugar, 1 tsp. rice wine (I think mirin would do nicely), and 1 tsp. soy sauce. Then, she heats a little oil in a skillet and cooks the mixture until it bubbles.

Grandma Renner’s Chili Sauce

Here’s another retro recipe for you! But first, I need to make a confession: I didn’t like this when I was a kid, when I had the opportunity to eat the chili sauce Grandma Renner herself had made! Now, of course, I kick myself for being such a little nitwit.

But I long ago copied the recipe from Mom’s collection, thinking I’d make it someday. But I had to go through some kind of phase where “real” chili sauces were viewed as somehow “better” than my own grandmother’s.

Maybe it’s a labeling problem: this really isn’t a true chili sauce. There aren’t any actual chilis in it! Bell peppers, green and red, but mostly it’s tomatoes. It’s a spicy tomato sauce. It’s basically chunky ketchup. There’s no heat to it at all.

If you look in church-lady cookbooks from the mid-twentieth century, you’ll find scads of recipes for “chili sauce” that are just like this: really, a tomato relish.

For our little Fourth of July feast, I decided to offer an alternative relish for our burgers, so I made up some of this. And boy, howdy—it’s pretty darned good!

You usually think of something piquant, tangy, tomatoey, and just . . . sharp tasting. Sharply tomatoey. But this has a good combination of flavors, vinegar, sugar.

Naturally, I didn’t follow the instructions to the letter. First, I made the “mistake” of not knowing that one is always supposed to blanch, peel, and deseed tomatoes used for sauce! What a nincompoop I am. (However, I do know that nutrients and flavor are in the skin and seeds, so unless I’m told not to, I tend to keep them in.)



After the initial hour of simmering, I could tell I’d have to run it through my food mill, and that would change the texture from how Grandma used to make it. But okay—I remember Grandma’s chili sauce being chunky and fairly watery, and I wanted mine to be more like a sauce—thicker, more ketchupy. So my “mistake” turned out to be a boon.

Grandma’s recipe calls for “red peppers,” too—I had to ask my mom what Grandma might have used. I mean, any hint of the word chili, and I’m inclined to use red chili peppers, those small, thin-skinned little firecrackers, like cayenne. But no, Mom told me it was more like a red bell pepper. Read: sweet red pepper.

I quartered Grandma’s recipe, since it was a maiden voyage, but next time, I’ll make a full batch and process it. Here’s why:



—It goes on nearly everything. Hamburgers, hot dogs, mac and cheese, baked potatoes, you name it—anything you’d maybe put ketchup on. I mean, just a hot dog or hamburger, a bun, and this stuff—and wow.

—Check this out: open a jar of sauerkraut, pull out enough kraut for however many servings you need, rinse and drain it, sprinkle caraway seeds on it, then spoon some of this relish in. Stir it up, then heat it. A microwave will do. Feed it to people who say they don’t like sauerkraut, and see if they don’t make an exception. Great as a side with brats and potatoes.

—You can use it as a salsa—a chip dip. Stir it in with yogurt or sour cream.

—Mix it with mayo and use as a dressing base for a pasta salad.

For this maiden voyage, I used greenhouse tomatoes—but I’ll bet it will be exponentially better made with red ripe summertime tomatoes! You might want to try it, too.

Here’s the recipe. Notes in [brackets] are by me.

Chilli Sauce
By Clara Renner

16 cups tomatoes (about large pot full)
6 sweet peppers [green bell peppers]
8 big onions [Mom said Grandma would’ve used yellow ones]

—Cook for 2 hours.
—Then, add and cook 1 hour longer:

2 cups vinegar [Grandma would have used apple cider vinegar]
3 red peppers [Mom said Grandma would’ve used sweet ones, such as red bell peppers]
2 Tbsp. mixed spices [Mom said these are pickling spices; I used McCormick, which must have some cinnamon in it—very delicious!]
2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp. salt
1 Tbsp. celery seed

—For catsup or sauce, use 1/2 tsp. ground red pepper, which you can use instead of 3 red peppers [okay, I added a little chili powder—the spice-blend kind you’d use for making chili—and I also used the red peppers as well.]



If you’re like me and you want to just try it out, below is the quartered recipe I used. I made an effort to cook it down.

Reduced Recipe
(makes about 3 pints)

4 cups tomatoes (approx. 4-5 tomatoes), chopped (next time, I’ll blanch and peel the skins off of them)
1 1/2 green bell peppers, chopped
2 regular-sized yellow onions, chopped [I figure what was a “large” onion in Grandma’s day is probably what we’d call a “medium.”]

—Cook for 2 hours in a heavy-based pan.
—Then, add the following and cook for 1 more hour or until as thick as you want:

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
4 sweet red peppers (shape and size of jalapenos—but they’re sweet)
1/2 T. pickling spices
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 T. salt
1/4 T. celery seed

—Adjust seasonings to taste. I’m sure I added more pickling spices and celery seed, thinking my containers of them were rather old. I also added a pinch or so of chili powder.
—When it’s about as thick as you want, run it through a food mill if you want it to have a more homogenous texture.
—I didn’t preserve mine, but this recipe was born to be canned.

Fresh Pineapple Salsa

Boy, has the hot weather landed in Central Missouri! Here’s another recipe to enjoy on sweltery summer days.

This is one of my go-to recipes, a venerable stand-by, a “jackpot” recipe; it’s always there when I need to bring something to a party (those expensive, organic blue corn chips make it seem extra special, so you might pick up a bag of those while you’re at the store).

Sure, there are a ton of excellent recipes for fresh fruit salsas, and as long as you use good, fresh ingredients and taste as you go, you probably can’t go wrong with any of them.

My version and ingredients are shamelessly stolen from the ingredients listed on a package of pineapple salsa from “Seno Rita’s Specialty Foods,” Manhattan, Montana. I bought their salsa a few times back when I lived in Helena, but once I figured out how to make my own, I never bought it again.

One of the lovely things about this recipe is its versatility. You can use it as a condiment with grilled seafood, chicken, or other meat, or (of course) as a dip with chips. I like to use it to perk up leftover rice, beans, and whatever-else in a burrito. I’ve had it over my breakfast eggs, too. Yum-yum!

Someone once told me they loved it so much they would be happy to try it over ice cream . . . but I don’t recommend that.

I won’t give you precise measurements, and the technique is simple. All you do is get a big bowl, then chop up the following into fine, salsa-sized chunks, adding the dressing ingredients, stirring, and adjusting as you see fit. Make it to your own tastes, and remember that the flavors meld best if you let it sit overnight.




Salsa ingredients:
—1 fresh ripe pineapple, peeled and cored (please don’t use canned, or you’ll miss the whole point of the thing)
—red onion: about a quarter to a half of a medium-sized one
—red bell pepper (half to whole, depending on size)
—Serrano pepper (or jalapeno), with or without seeds depending on how hot you like it
—cilantro (I like to use a lot, at least a quarter of a cup chopped)
—garlic, minced or crushed (I use a press); about one clove. Or, use garlic powder.

Dress with:
—white wine vinegar—a few tablespoons
—lime juice—from half a lime
—a pinch of salt—because just about everything you cook gets a little salt
—white pepper—which doesn’t leave black specks in your food
—turmeric—enhances color and adds an unusual flavor. You don’t need much.


A few pretty sprigs of cilantro and a couple of thin-sliced lime rounds make a good garnish.

Apple Chutney

Hey, folks, it’s a new month, and I feel free as a bird! Well, okay, at least free enough to tell you about recipes that don’t have anything to do with German cooking! (Yeah, I’m still learning about this blog-stuff. I make plans and rules, and then I want to break them.)

The following recipe is lifted from Indobase.com, and I made it recently to go with a lovely dinner I made of saag (cooked spinach with ginger and spices), chawal (rice), and some vegetable and paneer tikka masala (a curry with vegetable and homemade Indian cheese).

Why apple chutney? . . . Because my folks just gave us about a bushel of Jonathans, and they can’t all go into pies!

I’ve put the recipe into my own words and changed just a few things (like saying “powdered cayenne” instead of “red chili powder”). To see the original recipe, please go to this page.




One more note: My goodness, this is really, really good! I recommend serving it this Thanksgiving as a relish, either hot or cold. It seems like it would be fantastic with turkey, or nestled up against some cooked sweet potatoes.

Or you could dip tortilla chips into it . . .

Sue likes it, too. She says, “If you’ve never had a chutney, this would be a good one to introduce you to what chutneys are like. It’s so much like applesauce, it’s kind of familiar. And yet there are so many other things in there—including a little bit of heat—you’ll be thinking ‘Man, this is good!’”

She’s right—it’s not too far away from good ol’ applesauce. There are other apple chutney recipes that contain onions and such that would be a little more of a stretch for the American palate. But this should appeal to just about anyone.

Apple Chutney
recipe shamelessly adapted from Indobase.com

3 apples (cooking type, like Jonathans)
1 Tbsp. olive oil
seeds of 1 green cardamom pod, crushed and ground
2 bay leaves
2 cinnamon sticks
1/4 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. powdered cayenne
1 tsp. coriander powder
4–5 tsp. sugar
salt to taste

Peel and chop the apples into small pieces. Place in a food processor and grind with a little water.

In a saucepan, heat the olive oil. Add cardamom, bay leaves, and cinnamon sticks and heat for a few moments to bring out flavors of spices.

Add the apples, turmeric, cayenne, and coriander, and cook for a few minutes. Add the sugar and salt, and cook another minute or so.

Can serve hot or cold as a relish.