Mark Hix recipes: The sweetly pungent flavours of alliums enhance many dishes

Imagine a world without alliums; imagine food prepared without the sweetly pungent flavours of onions, shallots, leeks, chives and garlic. Not much fun is it? And luckily you don't have to, because most of us have an allium of some description tucked away in the fridge or larder. Slowly cooked, these kitchen staples form the base of many a fine dish, from stews and soups to risottos, pasta sauces and quiches; raw, they add zing and bite to salads and sandwiches.

In the cold months, onions can make a comforting meal all on their own. I remember my grandmother boiling onions straight from the garden in a little stock then serving them with a sauce made from the cooking liquid, an old ritual she performed to keeps colds at bay. I've made many versions of this dish over the years, and a simple plate of onions, grilled, roasted or boiled, can be surprisingly delicious.

Allium broth with dumplings

Serves 4

You can use any form of allium you wish, from shallots to overgrown chives. In fact, the more of a selection you put into the broth the better really. You could even pop in a clove of smoked garlic to give it a little edge.

For the broth

2-3 baby leeks or spring onions, cut into 2-3cm lozenges and washed
1 small red onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
A little vegetable or corn oil
1.5 litres vegetable stock
A handful of wild garlic leaves, roughly chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the dumplings

125g self-raising flour
½tsp salt
60g suet
60g freshly grated parmesan
Water to mix
2tbsp chopped chives

Cook the baby leeks in boiling salted water for a couple of minutes until tender, then drain and put to one side. In a heavy-based saucepan gently cook the red onions in a little vegetable oil for 2-3 minutes without colouring, then add the stock and garlic leaves, season and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile make the dumplings. Sieve the flour into a bowl and add the salt. Mix in the suet, parmesan and chives, then enough water to form a sticky dough.

Flour your hands to minimise sticking, and roll the dough into 12 little balls. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook the dumplings for a minute, until just cooked, then transfer to a bowl of cold water until required.

To serve, add the dumplings, leeks and wild garlic to the pan of broth and simmer for a minute. Re-season if necessary and transfer to serving bowls.

Leek and cider welsh rabbit

Serves 4

This is a take on the classic Welsh rabbit – yes, it's correctly spelled "rabbit", in case you are wondering, as that's what it started off as in the early 1700s, when there was a difference between English, Scottish and Welsh rabbits. Maybe the rarebit adaptation was a Welsh joke that caught on, or it was thought to sound more sophisticated. Anyway, Welsh rabbit is a refined cheese on toast with savoury additions, and in this case I've added leeks and cider instead of stout.

A couple of knobs of butter
1 medium leek, trimmed, halved, finely shredded and well washed and dried
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
80ml cider
80ml double cream
150g cheddar cheese, grated
2 egg yolks
2tsp Worcester sauce
1tsp English mustard
4 slices of bread – a small bloomer-style loaf is ideal

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Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan and gently cook the leeks for 4-5 minutes with a lid on until soft. Season them as they are cooking, then drain in a colander and leave to cool. Simmer the cider until it has reduced by half, add the cream, and then reduce this by half again until it is really thick, then leave to cool. Mix this together with the leeks and other ingredients, except the bread, and season to taste.

Toast the bread on both sides, then spread the cheese mixture on top, about 1cm thick, right out to the edges to stop them burning. Grill on a medium heat until the cheese is nicely browned.

Salt and vinegar onions

Serves 4-6

These make a great side-order with a steak or burger, but are also excellent as a tea-time snack to accompany a beer in front of the TV. It's a way to use up any onions you have around, and the batter made with gluten-free flour really does give them (and all sorts of other dishes) a crisp, light coating.

1 medium white onion, peeled and cut into rings
4 spring onions, cut into 3-4 pieces
1 medium red onion, peeled, halved, with the root removed, and sliced
3-4tbsp malt vinegar
100g gluten-free self-raising flour
½tbsp onion or nigella seeds
Enough cold water to form a paste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Vegetable or corn oil for deep frying
Onion salt to serve

Put all the onions in a non-reactive bowl with the vinegar, cover with clingfilm and leave for a couple hours, giving them the occasional stir. Drain well and discard the vinegar (or keep for another batch or a dressing).

Next mix the flour and onion seeds with enough cold water to make a thick-ish batter, then season and set aside to rest for half an hour.

Heat about 8cm of oil to 160-180C in a large, thick-bottomed saucepan or electric deep-fat fryer. Test a piece of onion in hot fat to ensure that the batter is the correct thickness and that the onions will cook up crisp and not stodgy. Adjust the batter with more water or flour if needed.

Cook the onions a handful at a time, stirring with a slotted spoon as they are cooking, until crisp and golden. When all the batches are cooked, scatter with onion salt and serve immediately.