Yeah, I know what your saying with regards to the oil, but, against all the rules, I think this is a case of, add it, then take it away bit by bit.  You roast any veg without oil, and they soon become very dry once the water content has evaporated.

It's funny tough, when you mentioned it, it reminded me of when I was a kid.  Mi mam used to put a whole onion in the pot of tater hash and then take it out at the end, coz I couldn't stand onion, lol

And I remember me dad, mashin it up with red cabbage and scoffin it down haha

Ray

Ah yes, dry roasted veg is not the best result. That's the idea behind keeping the onion whole and in it's skin, to stop it drying out before being cooked. If it can't be done with a suffiecient reduction of oil, I would probably just sacrifice this and fry the onions in as little oil as possible.

I did see a recipe call to slice just a small amount from the end of an onion, cut a cross into it like a sprout and then put a few drops of oil on the top, before roasting in an oven. Perhaps this might produce a better result? It's trial and error I guess, but worth a go I think.

Axe/Razor,

much appreciate u're thoughts - i feel it's on the right lines for what i need. the cooking of the onion is v.important in the base and if u take the oil out it don't work well - u can tell at blending - no matter what u do it sort of stays lumpy and this remains in the finished cooked dish. a key difference in spotting the fake.

my initial thought had been to return to my norm method but just take out the oil - in the HC curry i've been blending straight away.

the idea of roasting the garlic is something i defo need to try as i feel i'm missing a taste (have been for a while) and this could be it. doing the same with whole onion to then start the base is potentially a real break through on the HC front.

the roasting also puts my mind to rest on the effort needed by the BIR in removing the skin from the garlic - which is easy peasy once roasted.

blending onion then boiling does not seem to break the onion down no matter how long u cook it.

ps i am sure this extra garlic or taste is introduced at dish frying ie not in the base although i have found x2 garlic is better in the base

It seems that anything 'processed' isn't very good for you, pushing up your risk of a heart attack or diabetes by figures like 42%:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1279203/A-bacon-sandwich-day-puts-heart-disease-half.html

I think it is important to recognise that the article refers to processed meats inparticularly the process of. Mentioning the salt and preservatives that are used to cure the meat. The emphasis being on the effects of salt on blood pressure. Which is particularly pertinent to this topic, as is the final statement: "The British Heart Foundation said that meat could still be part of a healthy diet by using healthier cooking methods such as grilling." This is one reason I precook all my chicken in the oven and not fried and stewed.

Jerry, in the past when following recipes for Korma, they often said blend onion and then fry and cook it out. I never found it worked and you end up with that awful boiled onion taste. I don't know if the roasted onion will give the right results but it is definitely worth trying. The more I think about it, the more I prefer the idea of a greased tray and halving the onion to roast. This way you will get a caramelisation on the cut surface.

Might be worth wrapping each onion in lightly oiled tin foil then roasting, roast onion and garlic taste great, can't see BIRs bothering though due to the amount they would have to do but certainly worth trying at home. Paste made from roast onion is a lot easier to do than 'caramelised' paste though. 

Cheers
CoR.

Theres a couple of things you havn't tried that ive noticed on the onion part.
Shallots, sweeter than normal onions but smaller so cook faster and with less oil therefore.
Caramalised onions, take ages to cook but produce an intense sweet onion flavour, that also takes a lot less oil to cook, compared to the usual curry method.
Frozen pre chopped onions from iceland/morrisons seem to fry faster than fresh.
Or and i dont like to say it but, you could always opt for, its hard to say this, smaller portions.
lol.

some real good thoughts which i will try out if needed - i'd already booked space in my good ladies oven today. the onion 400g gross should produce a 3 off portion base. the oven is going to be at 140C and for upto 2 hrs.

this onion cooking thing is something i've come across before when making bunjarra - if u blend 1st the onion seems to take a lot longer to cook out than blending at the end (hence perhaps reason behind the standard method of cook then blend).

it may also be that just adding back a very small amount of oil (~1 tsp per portion) may also do the trick.

the onion & garlic roast is not for me. i left them in for 2hrs and they were overdone. i think the method is pretty hit and miss down to the size of veg used and it's difficult to weigh up when they are cooked enough. there is also a lot of wastage (particularly onion). u can't tell if any of it is bad either. i ended up binning the onion as the smell put me off. i've added the garlic to tom puree to taste again after 24hrs.

on the onion i'm going back to my std method of cooking base (ie not blend straight away as this don't work). i'll leave out the oil on the 1st go and then gradually add it back if needed.

on the garlic it would be easier to either microwave or par boil.

trouble is having tasted the roasted garlic i can't say it's the taste i'm after either - i need to leave it in the tom puree though to be sure. the par boil may be the answer. in the past i've added the pre fried slices early in the dish frying which causes it to blend into the sauce - i need to revisit this too.

What a shame. The garlic looks over done, I would imagine an hour would be long enough. Looking at the onion, I wonder if perhaps they may work better if quartered.

For all the messing about, I think your right, frying would appear to be the only real way forward.