Thai Pickled Shallots

Thai Pickled Shallots are a great little item to have tucked away in the cupboard or fridge.

Flavoured with chilli, garlic, ginger, lemon grass and coriander, you only need a few, thinly sliced, to perk up salads and virtually any dish with a South-East Asian flavour.

Ideally, you should mature the Thai Pickled Shallots for 3 months before using.

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If you’ve never tried pickling before, then Thai Pickled Shallots are a good project for beginners.

They’re super-easy to make. The only real skill you need is patience while the aromatics quietly go about their work.

THAI PICKLED SHALLOTS

Unlike when I used to make what I think of as traditionally British pickled onions, I tend to make just one jar at a time of Thai Pickled Shallots.

I suppose it’s because, with their bold flavour, a little goes a long way. So there’s really no need to go mad and spend half a day peeling a heap of shallots.

For me, ending up with around 500 grams of shallots which just fills a 750 ml jar nicely, is about the maximum number of bulbs I want to skin at any one time.

JARS, LIDS & STERILIZING

As with all preserves containing vinegar, you’ll need jars that have plastic-lined lids so they don’t corrode. However, most jars, whether you’ve bought them specially or are recycling old ones, will have plastic-lined lids anyway.

For my Thai Pickled Shallots I use a jar with a glass lid and rubber ring because it just happens to be the right size.

Before you start making the pickles, get your jars and lids ready. Give them a good wash in very hot, soapy water then rinse in clean water

Put your oven on to at its lowest heat and place the jars and lids on a baking tray inside. Not only will this thoroughly dry them but it should sterilize any lurking bugs that might spoil your pickle. Turn the oven off once the jars are hot, but leave them in there while you make the pickle.

SHALLOTS

Milder than ordinary onions, there are three types of shallots and all are fine to use in this recipe.

There’s brown (sometimes called English or Dutch shallots), pink, and banana (so called because of their shape and size).

There’s no soaking or brining the shallots. All they need is a brief blanching along with chilli and garlic.

WHICH VINEGAR?

Flavouring the vinegar with the aromatics doesn’t take long either. Around 5 minutes in fact.

By the way, you can use almost any vinegar. But check the label to make sure it indicates an acidity level of at least 5%.

I say almost any vinegar as what you don’t want is the dark, strong malt vinegar used for traditional pickled onions. This will be too overpowering.

Better alternatives are cider vinegar, white wine vinegar and rice vinegar. The most economical option is probably distilled white vinegar. I recently bought a big 5 litre container for under £3 from a local Oriental supermarket (sorry if you don’t like the word ‘Oriental’, but that’s their own description of the store).

For the batch you see in this post, I used about one quarter cider vinegar and three quarters distilled white vinegar.

INGREDIENTS

Now let’s take a quick look at the other ingredients you’re going to need.

First off is that classic Thai ingredient: lemon grass. You’ll need two sticks, sliced lengthways. The ones I bought (from the same shop as the vinegar) were so long I had to cut them into smaller lengths to fit into my saucepan!

You’ll also need garlic, coriander seeds, coriander leaf, root ginger, chillies and either lime zest or kaffir lime leaves.

How much heat you want in your pickle will determine how you prep the chillies.

I prefer medium heat, so split 2 or 3 chillies in half and discard the seeds. If you want a hot pickle, use more chillies and keep them whole. Use a cocktail stick to prick them a few times which will help to bring the heat out.

EASY THAI PICKLED SHALLOTS

The steps to getting great Thai Pickled Shallots are dead simple.

• Blanch the shallots, garlic & chillies
• Briefly simmer the vinegar with the lemon grass, ginger, coriander seeds, lime, salt & sugar, adding the garlic, chillies & chopped coriander near the end
• Strain the vinegar
• Pack the shallots & aromatics into jars
• Pour the flavoured vinegar over the shallots

Like all pickles, these should be stored in a cool, dark place. The back of a kitchen cupboard, away from the cooker or radiators, is usually fine.

The only difficult part is then waiting three months for the shallots to mature properly.

For my first batch (pictured above) I did dip into the jar at the two month mark. There were good flavours developing, but the shallots were still a little harsh.

However, when I went back a month later, the shallots had mellowed beautifully, taking up all the aromatics wonderfully well.

So, please hang on!

USING THAI PICKLED SHALLOTS

Sliced thinly, you can use Thai Pickled Shallots with almost anything having South-East Asian flavour. Try them with veggie, fish or meat dishes.

But my favourite is as an addition to crunchy raw vegetable salads.

They’re especially good for quickly adding interest to a fast meal. Here I made a cabbage Egg Foo Yung and, to up the veggie content, added cucumber and home sprouted radish seeds. Mixing in a few bits of shallot, plus a little of the pickling liquor, really lifted the salad without the need for any extra dressing.

In this next dish I made a noodle bowl with leftover pork and added mixed greens. For a fresh raw element, there’s a salad of julienned carrots, cucumber and radish plus Thai Pickled Shallots. Again, I used the pickling juice to dress the salad, making it a great contrast to the rich meat and charred greens.

To accompany another noodle dish, this time with miso butter-baked salmon, I made one of my favourite Thai-inspired salads.

There’s cucumber again, plus roasted peanuts, chillies and some of the shallots. This time I used the pickling juice in a simple but fab dressing. Just mix it with sugar, fish sauce and sesame oil in proportions that taste good to you.

Have you made Thai Pickled Shallots?

Let me know what you think by rating the recipe and telling me how you like to eat yours.

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Thai Pickled Shallots

Easy pickled shallots with a Thai flavour. Slice thinly & add to salads or as a garnish for all types of South-East Asian dishes.

As with all preserves containing vinegar, use plastic-lined lids or jars which have glass lids & rubber seals.

Course Side Dish, Preserve, Condiment

Cuisine Thai, South-East Asian

Keyword pickles, preserves

Prep Time 40 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 750 ml approximately

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

• 2-4 red chillies
• 500 g shallots, skinned weight after preparation
• 5 cloves garlic skinned & sliced thinly
• 5 cm ginger root, skin scraped off cut into thick slices
• 2 stalks lemon grass cut in half lengthways
• 1 tbsp coriander seeds
• ½ a lime: zest only, thinly peeled use 4 kaffir lime leaves instead if you have them
• 2 tsp salt
• 50 g sugar
• 600 ml mild vinegar e.g. cider, white wine, , rice or white distilled vinegar minimum acidity 5%
• 1 tbsp coriander leaf roughly chopped

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to its lowest setting.

   Wash your jar/jars and lid/s in hot soapy water, rinse and drain, then place on a baking tray in the oven.

   Turn the oven off when the jars are hot, but leave in the oven until you're ready to pot the shallots.

2. If you want a very hot pickle, use 4 chillies and leave the seeds in: prick with a cocktail stick so the heat can permeate.

   Otherwise: slice 2 chillies lengthwise, scrape out and discard the seeds.

3. Put the prepared shallots, chillies and garlic into a large saucepan and cover with boiling water from a kettle.

   Bring up to the boil and cook rapidly for 2 min.

   Drain and rinse under cold running water. Leave to drain again.

4. Transfer the shallots to a large clean bowl, leaving the chillies and garlic behind for now.

5. Put the ginger, lemon grass, coriander seeds, lime zest or lime leaves, salt, sugar and vinegar in the now empty saucepan.

   Bring to a boil, then immediately turn the heat to low and simmer for 4 minutes.

   Return the chillies and garlic to the pan along with the chopped coriander. Simmer for 1 minute then take off the heat.

6. Drain the contents of the saucepan through a sieve over a jug, making sure you keep all the liquid.

   Take out the ginger slices and discard.

7. Mix the contents of the sieve (chilli, garlic, lemon grass etc.) with the shallots.

   Pack the shallots and seasonings into the hot jar / jars and pour over enough of the reserved vinegar to cover.

8. Put on the lid/s and leave in a cool dark place for 3 months before using.

Recipe Notes

If you have any pickling liquor left over, make a quick onion pickle by placing thinly sliced onions in a clean jar and pouring the liquor over them. Ready to use when cold. Should keep at least 3 days in the fridge.