Friday, March 6, 2009

Pickled red onion 4 ways, part 1

Ladies and Gentleman, an historic event has occurred. I branched out beyond Caesar salad and made a new kind of salad!

I have many reasons for either not wanting or not caring to make interesting salads. First, taste and texture: I don't want lettuce and fruit together, I don't like strong cheeses, I don't like raw vegetables enough, and though I'm over it now I use to hate nuts in salads! Second, I don't like spending a lot of time on something that I eat only because "it's good for you." Just get it over and done with and spend my creative energies on the main dish (and dessert!). But on this historic day, all that changed!

I subscribe to a variety of food blogs with my hand-dandy google reader, where I found this amazing recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Here is my adapted version. The key is the pickled red onion. You will not be disappointed!

To make the pickled onion:
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup cold water
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 to 3 shots hot sauce (I used Tapatio)
1 red onion, sliced into very thin rings (Pampered Chef mandolin came in handy here!)

Mix all ingredients together and store in fridge at least 1 hour. I made this the day before, storing it in the fridge overnight. Then I took some escarole (washed and torn into bite-sized pieces), pickled onion, a bit of the pickling juice, a couple splashes of extra-virgin olive oil, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese and tossed it all together. Walla, amazing salad!

Yield: as much (or little) as you like! :)

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