So from time to time I make my own onion/tomatoes masala and store it away in the freezer for a quicker week night meal, but recently a good friend suggested to use the store bought fried onions to cut my time half in the kitchen, so I decided to give these a try over the weekend, but have to be honest I wasn’t impressed at all, the bag clearly said the onions were not coated with flour or anything else for that matter but the curries were not up to par by my standards. I am a big foodie and very strict critic to my own cooking
Khair I made Chicken qorma, Karahi gohsht and Channa masala…only thing turned okay for me was the Channa masala even though I used canned chick peas whereas usually I soak mine own overnight and pressure cook the next day. Karahi gohsht’s colour turned out too dark for my liking, basically It tasted like food from a local desi restaurant.
Is there another technique of using these? or should I just not even think about using these again, at this point I rather stick to my own homemade masala.
I don’t like them either. the fried onions.
Only time I’ve used them is to make a quick rice on a weekday or as as add on to the chicken tikka marinade.
Don’t laugh at me, but I LOVE store-bought fried onions in haleem. For everything else, we fry onions at home (and that too, in bulk - like 5-8 pounds) and then either refrigerate or puree and freeze it.
But to top my haleem, I love the crunchy store-bought onions :sid:
but what’s with the foamy slimy bubbles flying everywhere while rinsing, like seriously I can have a party with that many bubbles…Am I the only crazy one?
We boil the sookhey channas at home and freeze those as well into small packets - enough for chaat or whatever.
There are two things we use frozen/store-bought - frozen spinach and forzen bhindi - for everything else, my mother is a purist who refuses to use store-bought with preservatives.
I’ve used the store bought onions only for two things:
to garnish haleem…like everyone else…and for making qorma when I’m in a hurry.
I’ve never had the colour or taste be off because of the onions…maybe I’ve been lucky.
I have to say though we are pretty particular about which brand to buy cuz some of them are pretty stale.
Never tried the frozen spinach or bhindi and was highly offended when I saw bhabhi using the bhindi and me actually enjoying the taste. (bhabhi hain na, nakhray tau dikhana tha unko )
My mom uses fried onions, there is a specific brand that she goes with. The trick is that you make the masala with ginger garlic tomato and then add the fried onions. Her food turns out pretty fab. She has been using them since we moved to states so almost 13 years now.
I buy the huge bag of already peeled garlic and just add my own peeled ginger with the ratio keeping in mind of more garlic and less ginger, I am sorry I can’t remember the exact but I am just used to eye balling it…and then just grind it in a magic bullet or a regular blender/grinder…I freeze mine in little ice cube silicone trays from ikea…easier to pull out and then put away in glade freezer bags…
I do the exact same thing with green chilies as well
if you thinly slice the onion,spread it on kitchen towel and let it dry in air or sun for few hours before frying, you will save a LOT of time for frying it till brown !
(bhabhi hain na, nakhray tau dikhana tha unko 
)