Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: miggs on July 17, 2017, 12:06
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I have gone way overboard on the number of Shallots grown this year. What do you good people do?
Do you store or pickle, or a mixture of both.
I have hundreds of them by the way, drying out as we speak.
How long do you dry them for as well?
Thanks.
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If you have somewhere dry and cool, but frost free, they do store for ages. I let them dry out until the necks are completely papery through the the centre and the outer skins are hard.
They also make very good pickles. You can leave them in store until you want to make the pickles btw. The traditional pickled onion recipe is good with shallots and you can add any spices, chillies or herbs you want. In a nice jar, this is good gift for foodies.
I have also pickled them in a brine/vinegar solution. They make a milder pickle that is half antipasto/mezze type pick at dish and half pickle, but you have to keep the jar in the fridge once it is open.
Its a highly technical recipe :lol: Add salt into water until an egg floats in it. Mix 50/50 with wine vinegar. Add peeled shallots to a sterile jar. Put in herbs/spices/chilli/garlic/lemon rind as you wish. Cover with the pickle solution and leave for a few weeks to mature :)
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That's similar to the brine/vinegar mix I use for sweet peppers, and Giardiniera (mixed garden veg) at the end of the season.
I waterbath the jars for longer storage - but still only fill small jars because, as you say, they don't keep long once opened :(
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I'm just using up the remains of last year's crop of shallots which have been stored in the garden shed for a year :ohmy:
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Thanks for the help. Sorry for putting the original post in the wrong section, I missed this cooking section.
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I am just about to fill some jars (pickled) with the first 2kg of Shallots from the plot. Looking at what's left in the shed, I think I might have overdone Shallots this year. I will pickle some more of the smaller one's and then just store the bigger one's in the shed.
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Apologies for hijacking your thread miggs.
After my initial concerns my shallots have done well, so I plan to pickle a few. So I'll be following your advice from here.
Thanks
Aled
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Don't forget to save some small ones to plant again in te Autumn for next year's crop. Small ones divide better than the larger ones btw
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Don't forget to save some small ones to plant again in te Autumn for next year's crop. Small ones divide better than the larger ones btw
Nice one, never thought of saving any for next year.