Here we are fermenting onions…This is a post of one of my early classes. I have taught hundreds all over the world since this post. I now teach online at Fermentation School. To learn how to become a lacto fermentation superstar take one of my self-paced online fermentation classes.
I felt overwhelmed planning for last week’s Fermented Condiments class, mostly because there were so many directions I could take. Dressings, relishes, chutneys, salsas, and my new favorite concentrated seasonings, any of these could take up the whole time. I didn’t know how many of the students where completely new to fermentation, so I wanted the hands-on project to be one with a guaranteed success rate. I chose one of my favorites. Fermented Onion Relish which is as simple as it is delicious.
When my eldest son, who worked in our commercial fermentation kitchen producing onion relish in 200 pound batches, heard my plan he immediately said, “Are you kidding? You are going to have a room full of people chop onions?” I remembered the swimming goggles that fogged our vision and did not keep the crying sting from our eyes.
“Oh that is bad.” I said. Despite thinking it over, I stuck with my plan. I decided there would be a few other vegetables to slice so that nobody would have to slice onions. We would make Fermented Fennel Chutney as well. And, I justified to myself, we were talking about 10 onions over a class of 8 students.
Fast forward to Thursday evening. We have talked about fermentation, we have tasted a colorful array of fermented condiments; from salsas to spice pastes. The participants are happy, one woman tells me, “It is my goal to have in my refrigerator all of these varieties of condiments.”
It is now time for the hands-on portion of the class. We start with the onions. After a few minutes I am standing in front of my students who are dutifully slicing these onions. The room started to fill with that familiar smell, I look around the room and we are only half way through. I start to fret, maybe my son was right.
We endured, there was a huge hood fan in the kitchen and we took the onion ends to sit outside of the room. As the salt was added and the onions began to weep themselves the intensity cleared and we made it through. Soon we where packing jars, talking about the fermentation time, and everyone went home smiling. Whew.
NO tears were shed!!
Simple lacto Fermented Onion Relish
4 - 5 large onions (any variety)
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon previously fermented sauerkraut brine
1. Thinly slice the onions crosswise to make rings. Transfer to a large bowl and sprinkle in 1 tablespoon of the salt, working it in with your hands. Taste and sprinkle in more salt as needed to achieve a salty flavor that is not overwhelming. Add the mustard seed, cumin, and sauerkraut brine.
2. Press your onions into a jar or crock. More brine will release at this stage, and you should see brine above the onions. Top the ferment with a quart-sized ziplock bag. Press the plastic down onto the top of the ferment and then fill it with water and seal; this will act as both follower and weight.
3. Set aside to ferment, somewhere nearby, out of direct sunlight, and cool, for 7 to 14 days. Check daily to make sure the onions are submerged, pressing down as needed to bring the brine to the surface.
4. You can start to test the ferment on day 7. It’s ready when the onions are translucent, have lost their sharp bite, and are pickle-y tasting without the strong acidity of vinegar.
5. Store in jars, leaving as little headroom as possible, and tamping the onions down under the brine. Tighten the lids, then store in the fridge. This ferment will keep, refrigerated, for around 18 months.
Note: Onions lack inherent Lactic acid bacteria (LAB), when combined in the sauerkraut crock, kimchi pot, or pickle jar this is not a problem, just a little bit of the other vegetables have plenty of LABs to jump start the process. In onion only relishes and chutneys adding a little bit of sauerkraut brine is enough to inoculate the ferment and it will acidify as well as anything else.
