Pickled Onions

Since the weather had cooled down I decided it was time to pickle some red onions. Last year I used pickled onions on tacos. Since I can't eat tomatoes and peppers, tacos are a challenge to make a decent flavor. I did find a good recipe though that used pickled shallots. I switched them to pickled onions as I don't grow shallots. And as usual changed the recipe around. But I liked the combination of black beans, squash, and pickled onions.

The first recipe I tried was not my favorite. I really hate recipes that say use four large onions. Really? What the heck is a large onions? And if I have smaller onions how many do I use? I like pounds or cups of diced things. Numbers really mean nothing in produce. An onion can be an ounce. It can be a pound. This recipe was supposed to make six cups. Well it made 2.5 cups for me. So I obviously need more than twice the amount of onions that I used. The result tasted OK. It was too much like wine and not enough like onions as you might expect. And the result is almost black. A very very dark garnet.

The next recipe from Food In Jars, was much better. It wanted my onions in pounds. I used different spices (T brown mustard seed, T slightly cracked black pepper), but it worked just fine. As you can see in the photo above the red onions after boiling had almost all of their color washed out. I was worried I wouldn't get the pretty pink color. There is a reason to use RED onions in canning at least if you like the visual. And boy do boiled onions smell. I had to open all the windows to clear the smell out of the house. Note to self: don't make this in the winter when I can't open the windows.

But I was worried for nothing. The onions came out the most gorgeous color. I had to put them in the sun to photograph them as the light makes them so pretty. And how do they taste. No clue! They canned to 3.5 pints (not four as the recipe states). The one in the fridge will get tasted soon. I just made them yesterday and pickles are usually better left for a short time before using.

The kale I couldn't give away was frozen. I've got them in seven 4oz servings. I really want a working vacuum sealer again. My old one that was bought decades ago just doesn't work anymore.

Though not from my garden, I was stocking up for winter at the farmers market too. I bought lots of frozen chicken, some stew beef, and hamburger. I'll need to buy more, but she was begging me not to take all her chicken. She says next week they ought to have sirloin steak in stock again as they are slaughtering some more cows.

Join Robin over at the Gardener of Eden to see how others are stocking their pantry shelves.