those crispy sweet fried onion lachhas

[Milagai]

hi all:

i want to make those crispy sweetish dark colored

fried onion paper thin slices that garnish pulaos etc.

please tell me how?

also any variety of onion better for this purpose

and any variety to avoid? (in US markets)?

tia

milagai

[Geetha]

Definitely you'll be knowing it but still I'm adding that before starting or at the end you may make this by adding thin long sliced pieces of onions to the hot oil or ghee turn to low heat after they brown or become translucent then continue to saute them until they are dark brown.. are they sweet I've never noticed them that way may be there is some things to be added to it before sauteing of the onions to them.

Hope this help out, may be other pro's would level up to your expectations of perfect onions for this type use or preperation.

Happy hours of enjoying of your hard work to you

Geetha

[Milagai]

Definitely you'll be knowing it but still I'm adding that before starting or at the  end you may make this by adding thin long sliced pieces of onions to the hot oil or ghee turn to low heat after they brown or become translucent then continue to saute them until they are dark brown.. are they sweet I've never noticed them that way may be there is some things to be added to it before sauteing of the onions to them.

Hope this help out, may be other pro's would level up to your expectations of perfect onions for this type use or preperation.

Happy hours of enjoying of your hard work to you

Geetha

←

they taste sweetish to me when done. nothing added.

i guess that may be an idiosyncracy of my taste buds....?

is oil better for this purpose or ghee?

and shallow fry or deep fry?

milagai

[deliad]

Shallow frying on medium heat will be better as you only want to carmalize them. Deep frying will harden them after some time. Usually red onions will go better with Indian dishes as that is what is generally used in India. White ones may have more sugar and can work if you like that taste.

cheers,

[Geetha]

I guess you know when to use which type onion yourself based on shelf life sweetness, or availability.

But I've been using the yellow one that is cheaply and abundantly available in most of the stores. You could use red ones too for this if you want to butthe white ones will suffice for this purpose.

Also I think you asked the garnish if you wand the effect that \you describe of sweetness in the end result in your dish you could use the browned darkened as the starter ir like a tadka add it before the rice to the dish, that will result inthe sweetness you describe and also you may have colort intact of those onions. But hey may be crispy or thin only if shallow fried them enough to let out all the moisture in onions out of them you.

You asked about ghee or oil the question which I've asked my self repeatedle over time the answer to it is ofcourse based on ayurveda description of ghee(pure) as the best cooking medium for health no difficulty of colestrol from it at all don'tuse dalda or its equivalent.

I've wondered why is it no one knows our own tradition of its use. May be we have not given importance our own best techniques. And oh yes mozzarella cheese was imported from India by Greeks and then it spread from there to other parts of the world, found out about it doing research on Pizza and its origins..

Cheers!!

Edited October 6, 2004 by Geetha (log)

[prasad2]

Yellow Spanish Onions are just fine. Slice them thin, deep fry or shallow fry them. The trick is to spread them out as much as you can (not piling up on) on a baking sheet pan over a kitchen towel and lightly bake them at 200 degrees F for fifteen to 20 minutes. They will be crisp lachas.

[BBhasin]

we fry about 50 lbs of onions every week as we use them in our biryanis.

here is what I have learnt....

1. we use the white spanish jumbo onions. I would personally prefer to use the red onions as they have less water and fry quicker but they are expensive for our price range.

2. slice them thin and EVEN otherwise while you are trying to achieve your golden color, those sliced thinner will blacken and burn.

3. Try to use fresh oil.

4. Add the onions to oil which is not too hot, otherwise because of the high water content, the oil will foam over. Increase the heat after you have added the onions.

5. stir the onions during the frying process.

6 when the onions start to color, it is a good idea to reduce the temp. so that you remain in control of the final and most critical part of the caramalizaion process.

7.Remove the onions before the desired color is achieved, as even after you have pressed out the excess oil, they are still hot and the cororing process is contnuing.

8. spread them on a tray lined with paper or kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil.

9 you will get great results if you, while they are still hot on the tray, kind of 'fluff' them up with your fingers or a fork.

10. allow to cool and crisp.

11. strain out the its bitsy particles left behind in the oil before frying the next lot.

12. sore in an airtight cotainer.

besides garnishing your rice, pulao etc., these onions are great for a 'quick curry'

[Carrot Top]

You asked about ghee or oil the question which I've asked my self repeatedle over time the answer to it is ofcourse based on ayurveda description of ghee(pure) as the best cooking medium for health no difficulty of colestrol from it at all don'tuse  dalda or its equivalent.

I've wondered why is it no one knows our own tradition of its use. May be we have not given importance our own best techniques. And oh yes mozzarella cheese was imported from India by Greeks and then it spread from there to other parts of the world, found out about it doing research on Pizza and its origins..

Cheers!!

←

Could it be that ghee is more expensive than oil, Geetha? And of course it is not widely available in American supermarkets...

And although preparing ghee at home is not difficult, it does require attention during the process...and people have less time to do this sort of thing, it seems.

What do you think? Do you make ghee at home or buy it readymade...

[Milagai]

thank you everybody for your detailed replies.

i'll try them this weekend.

i only have the red onions at home so will work

with those

and report.

milagai

[Geetha]

Could it be that ghee is more expensive than oil, Geetha? And of course it is not widely available in American supermarkets...

And although preparing ghee at home is not difficult, it does require attention during the process...and people have less time to do this sort of thing, it seems.

What do you think? Do you make ghee at home or buy it readymade...

←

Sorry didn't see your post until now, I'll be glad to give detail of the process I use to make ghee at home.

Sure ghee isn't available to us in supermarkets even at home in India we make ghee at home from accumulated cream from milk..

I make ghee here at home but heating butter you have the convenience to use the smallest amount for one preparation for that evening only or use the ghee prepared for a longer time with out having to keep up in fridge.

Process or method is to heat over a medium flame until the buttermelts completely and the puddle of melt starts to foam, for upto 2 min turn to low flame or medium if you're next to it to watch over, when a small portion of the foam after it bubbles up and settles down begins to break up and clear to give youa view of the back suface of ghee beneath it it is time to put of the flame and see the brown tinge and great smell appear.

1. melt

2. foam

3. Bubbles (ie little bigger than foam)

4. clearing of surface of foam

5. browning on low or off flame

you may add a small bit of bay leaf dried to the preparation along side butter too.

Yes you did point out rightly ghee would be more expensive but worth its money fo it converts to health benefit. You could add half ghee and half of vegetable oil to make the dishes, but ultimate health benefit accrues with use of pure ghee, I agree it wouldn't be cost effective if you'd use only the butter from supemarket. But if we had a supply of fresh cream as an out come of heating milk up and store it over days then you'd accumulate the cream to later turn it to ghee. But all that is time consuming and messy my mother does it superbly well.

Not yet learnt to mess with milk not me!

Hope this answers some queries you posed here thank you for asking as I thought it was warranted when you speak of something as I did.

Hope you'll try it out once and let us know of the results it would be fun and happy to know.

[Carrot Top]

Actually I use clarified butter quite often. The process used to make clarified butter is the same one that you describe for making ghee...but the butter is not allowed to brown at all.

The purpose of making clarified butter is to remove the milksolids from the butter so that a pure fat is created, allowing for higher temperatures to be used when browning meats (or whatever else) without the burnt taste of unclarified butter but with the taste of butter rather than oil.

I have seen ghee for sale in Indian foodshops but have never purchased it.

Is ghee often made from goats milk in India?

[deliad]

Looks like this thread is turning from onions to ghee. Anyways, to answer Carrot Top's last query..

Traditionally, Ghee used to be made only from cow's milk, but these days mass produced milk is not purely of cows. It has other milks like goat, buffalo etc. also.

One point that Geetha did not mention in her ghee recipe, while making clarified butter (desi ghee) at home make sure that you use "unsalted" butter.

[Geetha]

You are right Carrot Top, in saying ghee is another form of clarified butter where the latter is formed by not allowing browning.

I really wonder about the health benefits are as I've described because mine is not a direct use experience as I've used mostly the vegetable oils available here.

But I'm open to more knowledge and research behind the claims of these above facts. Ghee may be good for health but have been ignored because of the preponderance of other existing facts and not knowing how it works out for a person's well being indeed I'd love to look into the truth by experimentation by using it myself at home and see how it turns out.

Of course we can really have another separate topic on ghee and clarified butter to further confirm our facts from other members here..

Love

Geetha