It is time! Pickling time! Pickled onions will be a welcome accompaniment to many a meal and for a little effort you will feel very satisfied with yourself.

1 kg pickling onions, peeled (see note below)

½ tsp coriander seeds, ½ tsp mustard seed, ½ tsp black peppercorns, ½ tsp dried chili flakes

27g salt

1 litre malt vinegar

170g sugar

Method

NOTE: Peeling pickling onions is fiddly and time consuming. To speed up the process top and tail the onions, then place the onions in a large heatproof bowl and pour over boiling water to cover. Leave to cool, and once the water is cool, hey presto, the skins will just rub away. Drain and pat the onions dry. Do not leave in the water once cool or the onions will start to go mushy.

Sprinkle the salt over the dry, peeled onions, stir to make sure the salt is distributed and leave overnight. Next day (do not leave longer than overnight if you want your onions to be crisp) rinse the onions and dry with kitchen towel.

Place the spices, vinegar and sugar into a large stainless steel pan. Heat to dissolve the sugar, do not boil.

Pack the onions into clean, sterilized jars. Pour over the vinegar and spice liquid to fill the jars, make sure each jar has pickling spices in and check there are no air pockets. Seal the jars and leave to cool.

The onions will be ready to eat after about one month or better if kept for two. Once opened store in a refrigerator.