pickled pearl onions

I love pickled onions! They are good with some cured meat, on a salad or atop some pasta. The following recipe is just a basic pickle solution that can be applied to any veggies but the focus here is onion. For onion I like the pickle to be a bit sweet hence the sugar... for say cucumbers I would add less sugar, a bit more salt and some dill. I also like to use a vinegar that matches the color of the veggie. The recipe below turns a nice golden yellow... that's why I like it for the pearl onions. If you're pickling red onions, or beets replace the champagne vinegar with red wine vinegar. So you can tweak it as you see fit.

First ingredients for the pickle:
(the next three spices are to be toasted)
1 T coriander seed
1 T fennel seed
1 tsp pepper corns

(you'll add these next)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
.5 cup champagne vinegar
.5 cup H2o
.75 cup sugar
1 t salt

(then these)
1 tsp mustard seed
.5 tsp chili flake

(this last)
1 10 oz package of pearl onions, peeled

Cooking steps
First, on low heat, toast the coriander, fennel and peppercorns in a sauce pan that will fit all the ingredients. Once the spices become fragrant and maybe smoke just a touch add the water. You don't want to add vinegar to a hot pan without proper ventilation or it will become very uncomfortable for your eyes and throat. So now that the pan has cooled off a bit add the vinegars, sugar, salt, mustard seed and chili flake. Let it cook on medium heat until the sugar dissolves and then on low for five minutes more, remove the pan from heat and let it sit at room temp, so the spices will steep.

Now it is time to prepare the onions. I find the simplest way to do this is as follows. Fill a large pot with about three quarts of heavily salted water and bring it to a boil. While the water is getting hot slice off the very end of the root side of the pearl onions. This should cut into the onion no more than a 1/16 of an inch. You will also need an ice bath large enough to fit the onions. Once the water is boiling add the onions... leave them in the pot for about a minute, drain and place them in the ice bath. After they cool for a few minutes they should peel with ease. Just pick one up and squeeze from the top... the onion should pop right out of the peel! Repeat this until you're finished.... place the onions in a jar and cover with the pickling liquid. You can strain the pickle first for a more refined look. Let them sit, refrigerated, in the pickle for a week before you eat them. This is so they will soak up the vinegar and become tender.