Indian Style Pickled Red Onions

Pickled fruits and vegetables are quite common among the various nationality groups of the Indian Subcontinent, and these "pickled red onions" are a frequent accompaniment to foods there. Chili peppers are also a big part of the food cultures of the Indian Subcontinent, and they are added to pickled onions, but they don't typically add mouth numbing heat to the onions. Red onions are the usual choice for pickling on the Indian Subcontinent, and some people there use small red onions, simply peeled and perhaps with a cut or two into the onion to allow the brine to enter, but larger red onions are also used, and they need to be sliced about a quarter of an inch wide so that the pickling brine can do its work. 

 

 

Ingredients:

  

1 large (baseball size) red onion, peeled

1 to 1 1/2 cups water

2 teaspoons white vinegar

1 to 3 teaspoons sugar (depending upon desired tartness/sweetness)

1 teaspoon salt

8 black peppercorns, cracked (not obliterated)

1 inch piece of grated ginger 

1 to 3 small chilies, slit (or use dried chilies, they will re-hydrate in the brine)

3 to 4 beet slices (not pickled)

Add the water, white vinegar, sugar, salt, cracked peppercorns, grated ginger and chilies to a pan over high heat. Stir to mix the ingredients around, Let the brine come to a boil for 20 to 30 seconds, then turn off the heat. Let the brine sit while you peel the onion and slice it into rounds about 1/4 inch thick, and then halve the rounds. Separate the onion half rings. Put the half rings into a bowl or jar (remember: non reactive), then pour the somewhat cooled brine over the onions. Cover (with a lid for the jar or a plate for a bowl) and let sit about 30 minutes, by which time the mixture should be cooled down and ready to be placed into the refrigerator. Leave the onions in the frig for 12 to 36 hours before serving. It's best to use the pickled onions within a week.  

 

WORD HISTORY:

Crowd-This word goes back to Indo European "greud/grewt," which had the idea of "to press, to push (against)." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "krudanan," with the same meaning, which gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "crudan" meaning "to press or drive forward or against." This then became "cruden," "crouden," "croudyn," before the modern version. The 1300s saw the noun form develop with the meaning, "the act of pressing or driving forward or against," and by the mid 1500s came the meaning "a large number of people closely collected together in the same area (with the density of people implying that they were pressing and shoving against each other)." As time passed, this meaning lost the notion of "pressing and shoving," and it simply took the meaning of "a group of people assembled in a particular area, often for some type of entertainment or common purpose," and this meaning was unique to English, as none of the other Germanic languages developed this exact sense. German once had "kroten" (press), Lowe German once had "kruden" (pressing, pushing, shoving), Dutch once had "kruien/cruien" (pressing, pushing, overrunning), Frisian once had "kruie/krude."