Sirke Wale Pyaaz - Indian restaurant style pickled onions

Sirke Wale Pyaaz - Indian restaurant style pickled onions

Ruby red , crunchy , sweet and sour all at once these pickled onions were a standard accompaniment to all Indian /Punjabi  meals that you ate in  restaurants in the 90s .

For some reason I dont see them so much these days but I love them so I decided to make them . A little bit of trial and error this recipe worked the best just like the sirke walle pyaaz at Kumar Sweets in Dehradoon.

The first time I tried making these I just put onions in vinegar but that resulted in only a very slight pink color and not such a great taste! I guess thats how American pickled onions are made ......since thats all I could find on the internet .



 But this recipe is perfect....the secret to getting a nice full bodied color is the beetroot! :)

INGREDIENTS
Onions (the tiny kind ) : 200 grams cleaned 
Regular White Vinegar : 1 cup
Peppercorn : 7
Bay leaf : 2
Sugar : 4 teaspoons
Salt: to taste
Beetroot : 1 small beetroot chopped

DIRECTIONS

Boil vinegar along with peppercorns , bay leaf , sugar and salt for around 5 minutes .

Add thinly sliced beetroot.

As soon as you add the beetroot vinegar will change color to a ruby red .

Boil for another 2-3 minutes.

Put clean dry onions in a clean dry clean glass bottle .

Strain the red vinegar solution into the glass bottle .

Add a few pieces of the beetroot that you strained out into the bottle as well.

Keep in the fridge .

Eat after 24 hours , gets better with time as onions loose their sharpness 

.Keeps well for 2-3 weeks as long as it dosent come in contact with water!