PICKLING ONIONS AND SHALLOTTS

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29801, 18 April 1962, Page 3

PICKLING ONIONS AND SHALLOTTS

A letter from Spreydon asks for a recipe for pickling shallotts and onions. Here are two ways, both with their own particular uses, for the plain vinegary ones are better if they are wanted to serve in the traditional style, just in the fingers to accompany drinks. The spiced onions are better if they are wanted for serving as a table condiment but are not quite such a good colour for the cocktail tray. The chief advantage of the spiced onion recipe is that the liquid round the onions is a condiment in itself and may be used as a sauce, either separately or with the onions.

Spiced Onions Ingredients: slb shallots or pickling * onions l**lb sugar 6 cups vinegar *4oz spice Hoz ground cloves 4 tablespoons flour 1 teaspoon mustard 1 tablespoon curry powder 1 dessertspoon tumeric Method: Prepare the onions and place in a basin. Sprinkle with common salt and stand tor 24 hours. Drain well; Boil vinegar and sugar. Mix flour tumeric, mixed spice, ground cloves, mustard and curry powder with a little additional vinegar. Stir in and boil for five minutes. Add the well drained onions and heal through throughly. Bottle and cover. Leave for three weeks before using.

Pickled Walnuts Another requested recipe is for pickled walnuts, “even it is too late for this year." Here are ways of preparing both. Ingredients: Walnuts (before the shell has hardened but green enough to be pricked with a pin or fork) A brine using: 4oz salt to 1 pint water Hot pickling vinegar, using: 6 cups vinegar loz salt l ioz peppercorns ‘soz cloves ’-soz allspice l ioz whole ginger Method: Prick the walnuts and cover with 4>rine using 4oz salt to one pint water. Change the brine three times at intervals of three days so that the walnuts steep in the brine for nine days, then drain and place out on a dish to stand until black. Pack into jars and pour over hot pickling vinegar, cover and keep for some time before using. Sugar may be added to the pickling vinegar if a sweeter pickle is liked.

Plain Pickled Onions Ingredients: 41b onions 2 pints spiced vinegar Method: Peel onions, dropping them into well salted water. When all are prepared, drain and pack into jars Bring vinegar to the boil with 14 oz peppercorns, *4oz allspice, 4ioz cloves, Vvoz stick cinnamon. Cool and stand for an hour, then strain over the onions and tie down. Best left about three months before using.

Easter Pudding Something light and attractive to look at is this Easter pudding; the shape to set for a gay Easter weekend. Make this one when you are entertaining, for quantities given here will make two large moulds and serve about a dozen. It is ridiculously easy to make for anything which gives the impression of painstaking sophistication. Ingredients: 1 large tin fruit salad 1 pineapple jelly 1 cup cream 2oz castor sugar . 4 teaspoons ground almonds loz gelatine 1 cup boiling water 1 cup cold milk Essence of almond Method: Drain the fruit from one large tin of fruit salad and divide it between two moulds. Dissolve jelly crystals in juice made up to one pint with water and heated together. Pour the dissolved jelly over the fruit in both moulds and allow to cool and set. Dissolve loz gelatine in half a cup of boiling water and allow to cool. Whisk 1 pint of cream, add 2oz castor sugar and whip together. Fold in ground almonds, then stir in cold milk and dissolved gelatine and mix lightly but completely. Add a few drops almond essence. Divide out into the bowls on top of the set jelly. Chill When firmly set. turn out to serve.

Miracles Here is a delightful small cake which is a great help when entertaining is in prospect, because it must be made ahead to taste at its best. Small chocolate cakes are filled with raspberry jam and iced on top; overnight the jam soaks in to give a delicious flavour. Called Miracles by the reader who so kindly sent them in to us, they are appropriately named for they are a miracle of economy as well as flavour. Ingredients: 2oz butter 2 tablespoons golden syrup 1 egg i cup sugar 1 tablespoon cocoa 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt J cup milk Method: Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, soda and mix through the sugar. Make a well in the centre and stir in the syrup warmed sufficiently to blend with the milk, and a beaten egg. Lastly add melted butter. Turn into buttered and floured patty tins and bake at 400 degrees; they rise in peaks like queen cakes. Turn out and cool. When cold, cut a piece out of the top and put in a teaspoon of raspberry jam, replace the tops and ice with chocolate icing. Store overnight ’in a tin before using.

Hot Cross Buns With Yeast Ingredients: lib flour i teaspoon salt 4bz currants loz chopped candied peel 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon J teaspoon grated nutmeg loz yeast J pint milk or milk and water 3oz castor sugar 3oz butter 2 eggs Shortcrust pastry • optional) Milk and sugar to glaze Method: Sieve flour and salt into bowl. Add fruit and spices. Dissolve yeast in tepid milk and add sugar, melted butter and beaten eggs. Pour into a well in the flour add salt and mix well together. Beat with hand until smooth, then cover and set to rise until doubled in bulk. Flour the hands and shape small portions of dough into round buns. Place on a well-greased and floured baking tin (allowing room to spread). Mark a cross bn top by cutting deeply or by plating thin strips of shbrtcust pastry across the buhs (as in the picture), and put, in a warm place to prove for about 20 to 30 minutes. Glaze with milk before putting the. buns into the hot ,oven (450 degrees) for about 15 minutes. Cool on a rack and brush with sugar glaze. This quantity will make about 16 buns.

,¥ ¥ i *

Storing Parsley. Parsley will keep fresh arid crisp -if washed well with stalks removed; dried in a' tea towel and stored in a screw-top jar in a refrigerator.

Chipmunk Bars When we And a recipe for a cake or a bar which needs nothing in the way of baking, most of us take another look, for in this busy life we lead any tucks we can take in time spent in the kitchen are well worth noting. Here is one sent in to us by a wonderful cook I know in Christchurch. It is made with glace pineapple, but very well drained tinned pineapple would serve when the glace is not obtainable. Ingredients: 4oz butter 4oz sugar 1 egg Jib plain sweet biscuits 4oz glace pineapple A handful of walnuts Lemon butter icing Method: In a saucepan melt 4oz butter and 4oz sugar together and bring to the boil. Beat one egg and stir in, cooking for about a minute. Remove from the heat and stir in half a pound of crushed vanilla wine or any plain sweet biscuit crumbs, the pineapple cut into slivers and a handful of walnuts broken into small pieces. Press out into a buttered sponge roll tin to set. When cold, ice with a lemon icing. Leave to become firm, then

¥ ¥ ¥ Keeps Icing Soft.— When making a white butter icing for a fruit cake, dissolve one teaspoon of condensed milk in a dessertspoonful of boiling water and add to the icing mix. Then, however long the cake lasts, the icing will not go hard.

Easter Risotto For a meal without moat, rice and vegetables in a savoury barbecue sauce provides all that la needed in the way of appetite appeal and nourishment. Here diced mixed vegetables give colour, cheese gives flavour for the most popular add probably the most economical meal ef the week. Ingredients: 2 onions 1 clove garlic 3 tablespoons cooking oil 2 cups rice 2 teaspoons vegetable extract 4*4 cups water 1 green pepper 1 packet frozen mixed vegetables % cup grated cheese I tablespoon chopped parsley

tomato Barbecue sauce Ingredients: 1 tablespoon oil or butter 1 onion 1 clove garlic 2 tomatoes 2 grated carrots 1 tablespoon chopped parsley 2 teaspoons soy sauce % teaspoon vegetable extract Salt and pepper 1 cup stock or water 1 tablespoon cornflour

Method: Finely chop onions and garlic and saute until golden and limp. Add rice and stir until pale gold. Stir in water and vegetable extract and cook, covered, for about 30 minutes. Discard seeds of green pepper and cut into small pieces. Cook frozen vegetables and drain. Combine pepper, vegetables and rice, forking together lightly. Turn on to a large hot dish, sprinkle with grated cheese mixed with chopped parsley. Heat oil or butter and in it fry chopped onion and garlic until browned. Scald and skin tomatoes and chop in. Add grated carrot, chopped parsley, vegetable extract, sauce, salt and pepper. Mix cornflour with a little of the stock and add the remainder to the sauee. Cook until the carrot and onion are tender, then stir in the cornflour. Cook for three minutes, then serve with the vegetable risotto.