Know Your Onions
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday October 11, 1996
I was in the schoolyard playing hopscotch the day Australia went from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars and cents. It didn't hurt a bit. My pocket money looked strange for a while, but it still seemed to buy toffee traffic lights and chocolate-coated cobbers at the local swimming pool kiosk, so there was no point worrying about it.
It was harder when we went metric a few years later. By then, thought processes had begun to set into the social concrete formed by habit and ritual. We had to give up thinking in feet, pounds and pints, and learn a whole new language of metres, kilograms and litres. But it had to be done, so there was no point worrying about it.
Now, however, I give up. When you can't call a spring onion a spring onion, the world is a sorry place. Worse, we are told that we have been wrong all these years. That spring onions are, in fact, green onions, that green onions are different to spring onions, that scallions are, in fact, green onions, that shallots are neither green onions nor spring onions but red onions, that red onions are Spanish onions, and that whatever you call one of the bloody things, it will be wrong.
The truth is that onions hit the shops at three stages of their life span: as babies, or green onions; teenagers, or spring onions; and adults, or fully mature globe or dry-skin onions. Green onions, which I have known as spring onions all my life, and which are also (wrongly) known as shallots in NSW and (correctly) known as scallions by Americans, are harvested before a bulb has formed. Their white, long cylindrical stem is uniformly straight, finishing in a subtle suggestion of the future bulb, and short white roots. They become (the official) spring onions when a cute, round white bulb has formed in the earth, but the tops are still green.
As the name suggests, they are at their best in spring, when they are harvested in order to thin out the onion beds, allowing the remaining plants to settle in for the term of their natural lives - generally until summer or early autumn.
Being milder than a fully formed onion, spring onions are delicious in spring vegetable dishes, linked with asparagus, artichoke and peas. But nothing is as delicious as a green onion, which can give you all the fragrance and magic of an onion without the tears and the harshness.
Of course shallots, also known as eschalots or French shallots (Allium ascalonicum), are wonderful in their own way. Small, hard, red-skinned onions which grow in a cluster like cloves of garlic, they are equally revered by French and Thai chefs for the subtle strength they give to smooth sauces, tangy salads and curry pastes.
So, now that we have been formally introduced to the green onion, what can we do with it? We can brush it with tamari (wheat-free soy sauce) and grill until the stems wilt slightly, then scatter over grilled fish and prawns. Or dip it in tempura batter and lay on top of a steaming plate of Japanese soba noodles.
Japanese chefs char them on a grill then chop them finely and incorporate them in a spicy dressing of rice vinegar, dashi (fish stock) and soy sauce with a little dried chilli to have with meat or chicken.
The Irish simmer chopped green onion greens in milk, and add the mixture to mashed potatoes with salt, pepper and butter for a local known as champ. In Turkey, an entire leg of lamb is cooked slowly on a bed of green onions and herbs. The Chinese steam a whole fish, then dress it in a hot bath of oil, ginger and green onions. In Beijing, green onion greens are finely chopped and scattered over spirals of delicate pastry, which are flattened and fried into crisp, golden, aromatic appetisers.
To use, wash well and trim off roots. Peel off the outer skin and the stem is ready for action in any recipe that calls for green onions - and spring onions, scallions, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Swordfish on hot potato salad with green onion relish
(Serves 4)
Green onions (the onions formerly known as spring onions), parsley, gherkins and capers add up to a sprightly springtime relish for swordfish or tuna.
10 potatoes, unpeeled
4 swordfish steaks
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp chopped parsley or chives
1/2 cup white wine
Cook potatoes in simmering, salted water until tender. Brush fish with olive oil and sear quickly in a hot, non-stick frypan, or on the grill. Turn once, and remove from heat without cooking right through, so that fish remains rare in the centre.
Whisk extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper, mustard and parsley or chives in a bowl. Drain potatoes and slice them thickly. Sprinkle with white wine while still hot, then coat in dressing and arrange on four dinner plates. Top with swordfish steaks and
a spoonful of green onion relish.
Green onion relish
1 tbsp tiny capers, rinsed
2 tbsp chopped gherkins
4 tbsp chopped green stems of
green onions
2 tbsp chopped parsley
2 tbsp lemon juice
salt and freshly ground
black pepper
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Combine capers, gherkins, chopped stems, parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper together in food processor, and whizz until blended. Leave motor running on low, and add olive oil slowly, spoonful by spoonful, until you have a thick green sauce. Taste for salt and pepper, and cover until required.
© 1996 Sydney Morning Herald