A Bulb Of Beauty

These small, easy-to-grow members of the onion family are used extensively in French, Mediterranean and Asian cuisines

- Jennifer Stackhouse

If you’ve fallen in love with French cooking and adore the small, almost pearl-like onions that often star in slow-cooked recipes, then you’re a convert to eschalots (also confusingly known as shallots, French shallots or golden shallots). Like large onions, these small eschalot onions have a papery skin but the bulbs are sweeter in flavour.

Whatever you call them, these plants are an easy-to-grow alternative to traditional onions to plant in the veggie patch or a container. They grow in clusters and individual bulbs are around 3cm long. These small brown- to red-skinned onions are grown from bulbs much like traditional onions.

As well as being used in French recipes, or fried, they can also be pickled or even eaten raw in a salad. In Southeast Asian cuisines, they are sliced finely and deep-fried until crisp. These can be bought ready-made in supermarkets and Asian delis — handy for adding to Asian-style salads and stir-fries.