Pickled onion rings

Ingredients

Ingredients

• 1 large red onion, peeled
• sea salt

BEER BATTER

• 165ml Kernel or other American-style pale ale
• 5g (or 2.5g of dried active yeast) fresh yeast
• 165ml sparkling water
• 250g plain flour
• ½ tsp caster sugar

PICKLING LIQUID

• 250ml cider vinegar
• 175g caster sugar
• ¼ tsp fennel seeds
• ¼ tsp coriander seeds
• ¼ tsp black mustard seeds
• ¼ tsp yellow mustard seeds
• ¼ tsp peppercorns
• ¼ tsp onion seeds

Instructions

Method

• STEP 1

  Cut 1 cm slices across the onion and separate each ring.

• STEP 2

  To make the pickle, put all of the ingredients in a large pan with 375ml water, bring to the boil, then simmer until the sugar dissolves. Add the onions and cook gently in the pickling liquid for 2 minutes. Turn off and leave to cool.

• STEP 3

  To make the batter, warm the beer to blood temp then drop in the yeast and leave for 2 minutes. Transfer to a mixing bowl and, using a whisk, combine the remaining ingredients until smooth. Cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place to ferment for approximately 3 hours, until doubled in size and bubbling. Whisk everything back together. You may need to add a litle more flour or water.

• STEP 4

  To cook the onions, heat a fryer to 180C (or heat oil in pan until a piece of bread browns in 30 seconds). Take a large handful of onions (draining the pickling liquid as you go) and drop them into the batter. One by one, shake off a little of the batter and place them in the fryer, being careful not to overload. Fry until golden brown and crisp. Drain onto kitchen paper and season with salt.