WHY ARE THE PICKLED ONIONS IN THE RESTAURANTS RED?

 I waited for this season to write this article. The new harvest of Ginger is in the markets. I will explain the relationship between this and the onions in a minute.

We all go to Indian restaurants for a meal. Once the order is placed, the waiter usually keeps a set of three containers  on the table. One has some pickle , one has a chutney of  some kind and the third has pickled onions which are red at the edges. These are supposedly pickled in vinegar.

Have you ever thought what this colour is ?  Have you ever wondered why red, why not any other colour like blue or green?

Now we come back to our new ginger. It is a pale pink colour and it has a tender skin which is also edible. Try the following at home. Take a large piece of ginger say 50 to 70 grams and cut into thin strips. It cuts very easily like a potato.   Now cut an onion and cut that also into small pieces and mix with the ginger pieces. Add some salt and put it aside for half an hour.

Most housewives know this simple day-pickle.  What they may not know is that these strips of salted ginger are blue litmus. Strange but true, its edible blue litmus. This can be used for any laboratory test also.  When we add a tablespoon of vinegar or squeeze the juice of a lime in it, the ginger, the onions in it turn pink and the edges mildly red.  This ginger and onion pickle has a lovely tangy taste and the natural pink colour is lovely.

This red colour is what all restaurant owners are trying to copy but the process has got bastardized two times over. First they tried to bring the same colour by using a piece of beetroot, then they stopped using vinegar and started to use synthetic vinegar of unregulated concentration, Then suddenly all the restaurant owners started to use food colour in large quantites ( a pinch in half a kilo of onions is a huge quantity).  Now they have stopped using the vinegar altogether and you will see that the onions are bland. They have also stopped using salt because of which the onions got a semblance of pickling.

Food colouring is highly avoidable, it is toxic, it gets into the liver of humans and doesn’t get excreted. A simple test is to rub the coloured onion in a white hankerchief. The colour will rub off on the cloth.

We started with a, pale pink coloured, tangy,  onion- ginger pickle and we have ended with deep red, toxic, bland, salt less onions.  This is the sad story of a lot of restaurant food.  I will bring more such horrors to your notice.  The professionals in the food business are taking the consumers for granted and are dishing out some nonsense in the name of good food.  

Refuse to eat the coloured onions, ask for a fresh cut onion with a spoon of natural vinegar or piece of lime and do try the fresh new ginger-onion pickle at home, it tastes good at the time of making and even more wonderful a day later. It doesn’t last much longer than that.

Param Jigyasu