Pickled Onions & Garlic
I made Chef Jeremy Fox's dill pickles from his cookbook, On Vegetables, and found myself fishing around for every last bit of onion well before the cucumbers were used up. Constraints are the mother of adaptation so Pickled Onions & Garlic were born.
The brine is almost the same as Chef Fox's pickles with a small nod to a favorite Gjelina recipe. I use this vinegary condiment for dressings, sandwiches, and cucumber salads. Pickled Onions & Garlic are quick to make and can stay in the fridge for a yet-to-be-determined number of weeks since I always polish off the jar before things go south. My childhood moniker is alive and well. Hey, Pickle.
Pickled Onions & Garlic are part of my Recipe Card series and are a building block for Smashed Cucumbers With Feta & Dill Pickle Dressing. Posts are shorter in nature and offer an opportunity to feature simpler dishes that I plan to reference down the road.
Farmers | Artisans
I make an effort to source my food from California artisans with a special focus on the Santa Monica Farmers Market. Below is a list of the folks who contributed to this dish.
- Katz Farm // Sauvignon Blanc Vinegar
- Schaner Family Farms // Onions
- Finley Family Farms // Onions
- The Garden Of // Onions
- Kenter Canyon Farms // Dill
Onions at The Garden Of - Santa Monica Farmers Market
Tools
- Rösle Mandoline/Slicer - This tool has a beautiful design and is really easy to use and clean. Pickled Red Onions, Gjelina's Spicy Sweet Pickles, and Superiority Burger's Sloppy Dave all call for a mandoline. I recommend buying a replacement blade to have on hand though it took quite a while before I swapped mine out (probably waited too long).
- Wide-Mouth Ball Jar - I previously stored my refrigerator pickles in tupperware and ruined a few lids in the process. The vinegar smell ends up living with you forever. I've since switched to wide-mouth canning jars which was a captain obvious move. I can squeeze this recipe into the linked 32-ounce jar.
Ingredients (Adapted from On Vegetables)
- 2 medium onions (1 1/2 pounds/570 grams approximate total weight before prep ), sliced thin on a mandoline
- 1 small/medium head garlic, cloves sliced thin on a mandoline
- 2 chiles de árbol
- 1 tablespoon (10 grams) yellow mustard seed
- 9 1/2 ounces white vinegar
- 2 1/2 ounces sauvignon blanc or champagne vinegar
- 2 teaspoons (7 grams) Diamond kosher salt
- 4 teaspoons (20 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
- 7 ounces (not quite 1 cup) filtered water
- 1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh dill
Instructions
- Prepare your onions and garlic then set aside.
- Grab your jar and a large bowl (preferably glass or other non-porous material, i.e. not plastic) and set aside.
- In a small nonreactive pot, combine the chiles de árbol, vinegars, salt, sugar, pepper, and water. Over medium heat, warm the liquid until it just barely comes to a simmer. Turn the heat off and stir so that the sugar and salt are completely dissolved.
- Combine everything in the large bowl, mix thoroughly, then transfer to the jar. Gloves are helpful since the vinegar and chiles can irritate the skin. Note: I find I can get more onions into the jar when I combine them with the hot brine in advance.
- Seal and refrigerate.
- The pickled onions are best after they set up for a few days but can be used within 24 hours. The flavor improves with time.
Coming Up
- Subscribe at the bottom of this page for new posts.
- Follow on Instagram.
- For bread geeks, my naturally-leavened IG journal is here.
Ingredients on Things
