Know your Onions

If you don't know how to brown onions you will never get the authentic taste of Indian food.All the cook books say ' Saute  onions till lightly golden' or even 'pink'. Forget it. Eat onions thus made and in no time at all you will feel like a bloated buoy floating on a wild wild sea.

Here is how to go about it.The first thing is to take a heavy bottomed pan. Stainless steel is  not the best for this.An aluminium or thick cast iron kadhai or wok shaped pan is the best. Heat it well and add the onions dry. NO OIL!

Let the onions sweat on a medium fire till very soft and mushy and brown. Stir from time to time.This will take all of 15 minutes and there is no way you can rush this process unless you add a lot of oil.To get really caramelised they will take 30 minutes.Then they get a wonderful rich taste and colour which forms the basis of a good curry.

(If you must have oil or ghee (clarified butter) you can use a tablespoon or two for up to 4 large onions.)

To speed up cooking time get going with all the other preparations- chopping the other vegetables, marinating or browning the meat, making the ginger garlic paste or any other paste required, getting the masalas together and so on while the onions get brown.