onions of spring

My raiding of the fridge for inspiration is getting a tiny bit desperate. There is not much left in there so we shall have to go to the market some time soon - Thursday maybe. All I have is lettuce, beetroot, a few mushrooms, some dill and some carrots. And quite a few spring onions. So I decided to go with the spring onions and do some sort of chicken stir-fry - and whilst I was trawling through my recipe database for inspiration I came across the perfect recipe - though I shall modify it slightly as I don't have any Asian greens or snow peas, which are also required by the recipe. I have some silver beet in the garden though. I wonder how beetroot would go? Anyway all of this is to introduce today's topic - spring onions.

First the name. A misnomer as you can grow spring onions at any time. Jane Grigson also quotes an ancient Chinese poem that refers to them as winter onions:

"this basket full of Winter Onions, still

Damp with dew. Delicate grass-green bundle,

White jade small bulbs.

Chill threatens an old man's innards,

These will warm and comfort me." Tu Fu 759AD

And they are popular with kids' kitchen gardens. However, I guess they got the name back in the day when maybe you couldn't grow them all year - they are actually just baby onions and in America are called scallions. I think they were called shallots here for a while but I'm pretty sure that nowadays they are called spring onions. Shallots or eschalots as they are sometimes snootily called are something different again - a sort of cross between onions and garlic. You can get red spring onions as well as white ones, and slightly larger ones that are called salad onions. They are very good for you, though one of the health websites I looked at and which said it cured virtually every disease known to man - well I exaggerate a little - said to avoid the green tops, Which is curious as a friend with fructose intolerance who absolutely cannot eat onions, can make do with the green tops of spring onions - and chives - which are even milder. i found a rather nice botanical illustration of the onion family - although it doesn't have shallots or leeks in this picture.

When I was young we only ever ate spring onions raw with salad, just the tops and bottoms trimmed off and no dressing. Not very adventurous and not really all that pleasing. The Asians use them a lot, although, it seems to me, either as an incidental ingredient or as decoration - shredded finely or cut diagonally mostly. Maybe there are more stir-fry recipes like the one I found. But they are also a common ingredient in pancakes which are then rolled around various different kinds of fillings.

On a similar note you can also find lots of recipes for savoury muffins, scones and fritters that have spring onions as the main or supporting ingredient.

But my main source of information with respect to what to do with them was Nigel Slater - and I'm sorry to keep coming up with the same people and the same websites - but I'm sure that over time we all develop a small core of favourite cooks, chefs and sources. When they are reliable, interesting and consistent why not? On the Guardian website, Nigel Slater rhapsodises about the spring onion and what you can do with it. (Click here to go to the full article.)

"I appreciate this thin, elegant member of the onion family for its mildness, and the gentle note they impart when cooked. A spring onion, finely sliced, adds savour without the caramelised sweetness of a slowly cooked large onion. Good for when you want to introduce the allium's flavour but not its thick, sugary mass." Nigel Slater

Among the more interesting things he does with them is a method of grilling them on a charcoal barbecue. Boil them slightly first if they are large (are they ever?). When cooked drizzle with oil, lemon juice and a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar. Oh and you have to oil them before putting them on the barbecue. Eat in a soft hamburger bun or add to a salad with a mild cheese. Or try this short-term pickle - "Bring the onions to a simmer with vinegar, coriander seed, white peppercorns, allspice and a sprig of thyme and simmer until the onions are soft. Pour into a clean jar, seal and leave to cool before refrigerating. They will keep for several days in the fridge."

And then there are tarts. Jane Grigson has a recipe from France.

"Line a 25cm tart tin with shortcrust pastry and cover the base with a layer of chopped large spring onions seated in butter for about five minutes. Mix 250g fromage frais or half curd cheese and half yoghurt, with 4 egg yolks, 3 tablespoons of double cream, salt and pepper. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the cheese mixture. Spread over the spring onions. Bake at 200ºC for 25-30 mins."

My delicious recipe from my database is for a spring onion, ham and mustard tart.

On the base are sliced almost cooked potatoes, then ham, then spring onions. Pour over a quiche mixture of cream, eggs, mustard and cheese and hey presto.

So there you have it - spring onions. Versatile, tasty, pretty. You should always have some in the fridge, so that when you're stuck like me you can come up with something interesting.