Topic: "To Fry or Not to Fry?"; This is the Question!

[Cory Ander]

Dear all,

Looking through the various curry bases here, it is obvious that onions are the primary and common ingredient to all of them. 

However, there is one particularly significant difference in the way in which the curry basis are prepared; whether the onions are fried, boiled, or a combination of the two? 

I reckon one of the most difficult things to replicate at home is the sweetness of BIR curries.  I'm sure that this largely due to the way in which the onions are prepared.  It seems to me that poorly cooked onions are rather bitter and that only prolonged cooking times impart the necessary sweetness?

I would be very interested in people's opinions, therefore, on whether it is best to fry the onions, or to boil them, or to both fry then boil them, and why?

Thanks

[Yousef]

Cory Ander,

I boil the onions with a few slices of potato, turmeric and the magic ingredient - 1/2 Teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda which breaks down the onions superfast and takes away any acidity.  You just try it and it cuts a 2 hour boil down to 30 mins.

S

[mike travis]

I was always led to believe the longer you fried onions the sweeter they got. The thing I always have trouble with is when do onions become golden brown??......mike

[Dragon]

i believe the best is fry first or sweat the onions as u dont want to brown them then boil in the water with the other stuff and simmer for 1 hour.

[CurryCanuck]

Add a little salt to the onions as well when frying , as this will help to draw some of the moisture out .

[George]

The way I see it is that BIR curries incorporate two separate shots of onion/garlic/ginger with each shot being cooked in a different way. It is the combination of the two distinct cooking methods which makes the final curries tasty.

One shot is the (almost) fresh onions/garlic/ginger which are stir-fried at high heat around the start of each final curry. This element presumably goes brown.

The other shot is the base sauce, being primarily boiled.

So final onions = boiled onions + fried onions

I'm not sure this is correct but it's the way I see it.

Therefore if you brown the onions in the base sauce, you miss out on the flavour of simple, long-boiled onions.

Regards
George

[Mark J]

Hi george,

The onions I have seen added in the final dish have always been pre-fried. Frying onions at maximum heat makes them bitter (alledgedly)

cheers

Mark

[CurryCanuck]

The onions I have seen added in the final dish have always been pre-fried. Frying onions at maximum heat makes them bitter (alledgedly)

Very true Mark , thats why when saut?ing onions, always use low or medium heat. The bitterness is quite pronounced on a high heat .

[Ashes]

read this old post, it might answer some of your questions on onions and sweetness.

http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=176.0

Ashes

[Cory Ander]

Thanks for the link Ashes.

I read all 9 pages of the post (twice!), but there doesn't appear to be anything about boiling or frying the onions in the curry base, or its effect on the sweetness of the onions?  Am I missing something?  Or did you mean to provide a link to a different post?