“Don't be too daring in the kitchen. For example, don't suddenly get involved with shallots. Later, when you are no longer a Lonely Guy, you can do shallots. Not now. If you know coriander, stay with coriander and don't fool around. Even with coriander you're on thin ice, but at least you've got a shot, because it's familiar. Stay with safe things, like pepper.”Bruce Jay Friedman The Lonely Guy Cookbook (1976)
Looks like garlic, tastes like sweet onions, must be shallots. Not to be confused with scallions, ubiquitous term for sprouted green onion, the shallot is different from the onion. From the outside, it is a bulb of the lilly family harvested before it is allowed to bloom, growing in clusters like its cousin garlic. When peeled, the bulb resembles a teardrop shaped onion, colors range from whitish grey to purply red, in over 500 varieties in between. Shallots are high in flavonoids, which improve cardiovascular health, lowering bad cholesterol levels and aid in cancer resistance, as well as increasing pungency and potency when compared to onions. Believed to have come from Askelon (from whence comes their name) in ancient Canaan, they grew wild from central to southwestern Asia; they were introduced to Europe during the Crusades. Wonderful in kebabs, Lea & Perrins insists they be present in their genuine Worcestershire Sauce, which was a failed attempt at reproducing a sauce from India; the original sauce itself a failure until it had been forgotten, festering and fermenting for two years, when voila!
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