Japanese-inspired Pickled Red Onions
A simple recipe to bring Japanese flavors to pickled onions. Perfect for summer!
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Introduction
It was a long time since I wanted to try making pickled vegetables at home, and thanks to a friend, I recently got back into the topic.
At the same time, I was also seeking to give a ramen twist to pickling. So, since I always look for new toppings for my ramen, I thought why not try pickled onions on a bowl?
What does it taste like? Pickles, generally, are mouthwatering. And that is kind of a matter of fact. Sour foods, in fact, actually induce salivation in order to rebalance the acidity created in our mouth, and this usually gives a nice feeling. With these pickled onions, there is a good balance between acidity, sweetness, and umami while bringing a Japanese-oriented spiciness to the plate.
Recipe
Ingredients
Red onions (I used the Italian “Tropea” one, but you can use regular red onions)
Brine
250 g water
250 g rice vinegar
50 g mirin
25 g salt
25 g sugar
Aromatics
1 tsp (2-3 grams) of whole-grain Sichuan peppers
1 Sichuan red chili, without seeds
2 “coins” of fresh ginger
2 bay leaves
a little piece of mandarin peel (optional)
Preparation
Peel and halve the onions, then slice them. I prefer to cut the onions lengthwise, with the knife following the long side from the root to the bud end.
Put the sliced onions in a sealable jar, eventually pressing them down to occupy more space.
Put the mirin in a saucepan and bring to a boil, then hold for 2-3 mins for the alcohol to evaporate.
Add the water, rice vinegar, salt, and sugar to the saucepan.
Add all the aromatics to the same saucepan.
Bring to a boil.
As soon as the liquid boils, pour the brine into the jar, on the onions. Make sure to include all the aromatics.
Done! Wait for the pickled onions to chill at room temperature, then store them in the fridge.
Pickled onions are ready right away, though you start getting a better result after a few hours. From my perspective, the best result is reached after at least a day of infusion, when all the aromatics release their flavor thoroughly into the brine and the onions.
How to use it
In the first place, if adding on ramen, keep in mind the temperature difference. Ideally, pickled onions will be cold, and it is not certainly a dish you can heat up.
Most of the time, you only want to keep an especially hot bowl overall. Still, I think sometimes a temperature difference is something you may want to achieve for creating contrasts. Think about it carefully and decide based on your taste. Anyway, I suggest laying down pickled onions on top of some other topping in the bowl, so that it does not cool down the soup before serving.
The way I see it is that this kind of pickled onion works well for a Tokyo-style chicken chintan plus shoyu ramen. It could be argued whether it could work just as well on a pork-based soup, but I feel chicken has a win here.
Also, pickled onions are a tasty addition to steamed rice or mazemen (soupless ramen), for which a little of the pickling juice could be used as a part of the tare.
Finally, pickled vegetables are just good as they are. Try it in a salad or in a burger. I like to eat it straight from the jar. Am I nasty? Maybe.
Notes & Storage
Pickled onions can be stored in the fridge for a few months.
Usually, I tend to use rice vinegar to make these pickles onions cause it feels more Japanese-forward. On the other hand, the same recipe works just as well with apple or spirit vinegar, so feel free to use what you prefer or the one you already have around.
Also, I feel this recipe could be tweaked in a more mirin-forward way, increasing mirin and maybe adding sake up to half the quantity of water, which should then be reduced to still match the half-half proportion with vinegar. I suppose the result would be sweeter and richer in umami. I guess I will just have to try.
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