Pickled Onions

My Mum gave me some tiny onions from her garden and I used them to make some pickled onions. I have no idea what they taste like as I need to leave them for a month to develop flavour!

Pickled Onions (from Vegetable Expert)
(Makes a 1 litre jar)

450g baby onions
600ml water
50g salt
400ml malt vinegar
1 tsp pink peppercorns
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tbsp caster sugar – for sweet pickled onions

Dissolve the salt in the cold water and put into a large bowl. Cut a thin slice from the base and top of each onion, ensuring that it will remain intact, and remove the outer skin. Drop the onions into the brine as you peel them. Leave the onions overnight (or up to 24 hours) to draw out moisture. In the morning, tip the onions into a colander and pat with kitchen towel to dry out as much as you can. 

Prepare the pickling vinegar. (If you'd like to include additional spices such as bay leaves, cardamom or chilli, go ahead - ensuring that you use no more than 1tbsp of spice in total.) Put the spices, sugar and vinegar in a pan and bring the mixture to simmering point. Turn off the heat, strain through a sieve to remove the whole spices, and let the vinegar cool for a while.

Prepare the jar. Wash in warm, soapy water and put them into a warm oven (120 degrees C) for 5 mins to sterilise them. Take out of the oven and leave for another minute or two before packing the onions into the jar. Pour in vinegar as you go, topping up after halfway and finishing with enough vinegar to cover the top layer of onions. Put the rubber seal onto the jar and seal. Turn the jar upside down to cool.