Where can I buy pearl onions from

[ruggief]

Hi there,

My receipe calls for pearl onions, I know I could use ordinary and chop them up but small onions look better presentationally (if that's a word), hubbys boss is coming to dinner so want it too look nice then it might distract from the taste... waitrose, tesco, sainsburys and my local farm shop no good. any suggestions??

[puddicat]

cant think of where you could get those tiny onions, how about some small shallots, they are slightly bigger would think a good fruitgrocer of even the major supermarkets, i would give them a ring first to see if they stock them save youre self a wasted journey!

[ethandron]

asda have shallots in right now, it's the pickling season i think. some of the shallots are pretty small.
give the boss a few glasses of wine before you eat and he won't notice the onions are a bit bigger than they should be - would he know how big they should be in the first place? what are you making for him?

[TheWinner]

Hi, I think I have seen these sold in Tesco, (although some time ago, and I haven't been looking out for them), they were in the onion section and if I remember rightly, they were sold in set weight cellophane packets, rather than loose.

[ruggief]

Hi,

Thanks for the answers, I'm making Gordon Ramsay's chicken fricasse with pearl onions and petit pois, (substituting the petit pois for tesco frozen peas), I did ask in tesco for pearl onions and was directed to aisle whatever to be confronted with several rows of pickled onions, right size just I need them raw, if not shallots it is, and I plan on several glasses of wine for me and him before we eat..

[nickmo]

Hi R - use shallots and peel them down in size before cooking if you can't get pearl onions locally ....- try a farmers' market as a starter.

Pearl onions should be about 2 -3 cm at most. Spring onions (or garden onions as sometimes called) are a possible option too, but hte texture will be different - much lighter than a proper pearl onion.

Tradtionally pickling onions are coming into season now, so you may find the pearl varieties out soon too. Pearl onions are also sold as button onions by the way , so maybe try asking for this as well.

Hope this helps some..

[BBWCHATT]

Here our supermarkets have them in the frozen food section.

[ruggief]

Thanks so much, I didn't think of frozen, Tesco's have come up trumps, So I'm sure it will look delicious, even though it may not taste it!