Photo by Wilhelm Gunkel on Unsplash

 

I love onions. Most probably you do too. Hence you are reading this blog. 

 

I have many onion memories. Let me peel them layer by layer. 

 

My cousins stay in Dahanu and when I visited them as a child (some 50 years ago), I would see lovely large Yellow Coloured Onions hanging somewhere in the house. Maybe they were White....yellowish white. They were huge.

 

I think my cooking lesson, I got at the age of 10 or less! You could dump the huge onion in the fire (do not remember what kind of fire it was) -- probably with fire wood (for heating water for bathing!) It would, er, burn to black outside. Barbeque is a nice word and a nice concept that I learnt 50 years later! Those onions tasted very sweet, very tasty. Remember, they were the white ones....so not pungent at all or at best very mildly pungent. 

 

My second cooking lesson was about onion. How to chop onion. I doubt whether there is an Indian who has not seen the onion being chopped this way. Probably, you have seen this at home, but more likely you saw it on the road or a dhaba. Someone cutting onions -- first vertically TWICE and then horizontally.  I learnt (theory) how an onion is cut. Then it was added to kurmura (puffed rice) with some salt to make  a home-made version of bhel. 

 

From age 50 to 60, I have been eating out a lot. My taste buds have had a giant adventure. I saw nice huge onion pieces (one quarter of the onion layer) in Chinese dishes.  Perfectly sauteed with sugar to make it quite tasty. It lent a sharp contrast to the vegetables.   So much show, I don't remember any of the other vegetables, except perhaps green capsicum. 

 

We see these onion quarters/bites when we order tandoori paneer. The onion quarters are pierced as dividers to the paneer. They are tasty, but usually the spices are overpowering. It is like the music is so loud that you cannot concentrate on the dancer.

 

Always looking out for new dishes to try, I did try out Paneer Do Pyaza a few times. Not sure whether I had any other do pyaza. There are at least two versions of why a do pyaza is a do pyaza. One: two types of onions are used.  Two: the onions are cooked in two different ways. (Maybe we can also say they are cooked twice -- or is that the third explanation.) Wish we could enjoy food intellectually like this without eating too much. We would be less obese. If we focussed on quality, we would lose focus on quantity.  Less would be more. 

 

Dr Anil Bhat, an ortho from Manipal/Udupi (food heaven / food capital to me!), my favourite foodie/doctor on Twitter, recently asked for suggestions on using onions. 

 

Czech Dhaba @mangalamkrishn2 another of my favourite foodies responded:

 

As I want this to remain for longer days and relish it- I will always go for pickles or thokku. Half you can of course use in sambar. Even you can add this in BBB. They bring in a different flavour. I specially ordered from a Vietnam shop when I served BBB for an event.

 

BBB is Bisibele Bath (बीसी बेले भात). What is Bisibele Bhath? Bhai...aap College ke kaksh mein kya kar rahe hain. Foodie School mein pass ho ke aayi! 😜 Er, for those who do not know BBB... a quick and dirty explanation would be it is a sort of Sambar rice.  (I say this at the risk of losing my "foodie badge"!)

 

MLK @MLK77837996

 

Can't think of anything else other than drumstick and small onion sambar/huli

 

Root of Lotus @siddidatri

Ulli theeyal

 

Theeyal means "burnt dish" and consists of roasted coconut, coriander seeds, dried red chili and fenugreek.

 

Chanchal Chaudhary @ChanchalC08

suggested Sirke Wale Pyaaz / Restaurant Style Vinegar Onion and shared a link.

 

I have a Ghazni memory. I can't see any notes on my body saying SWP I had at phalana phalana restaurant. I remember SWP given with Chole Bhature on Jai Hind road, Churchgate! What a difference it made to eating the Chole Bhature! A foodie friend tole me that they used beetroot to colour it red!

 

Shankar @ShankarAanandN queried:

 

Pickle?

 

Prasanth kumar @nimmaprasanth gave an awesome suggestion:

 

Shallots + tomato + roasted peanuts chutney.

 

I agree with him... you can eat this without idli or dosa! 

 

Mrs Shrini @bezubaan suggested:

 

Arachuvitta sambar is a must :) The sambar tastes double delicious on the next day (ie leftovers) I also make garlic onion rice with these (if you eat garlic).

 

Back to me

 Just as I was surprised that many mentioned Sambar (a very obvious answer to what to do with onions), I was surprised that no one (in the same vein) mentioned Do Pyaza.  After sambar, Onion Pakoda / Kanda Bhaji (भजी) has a classic/iconic relationship with onions.

 

We have many Konkani dishes with onions -- meaning onion dishes. Piyava Bhutti is a favourite though I have had it very rarely. (Mushroom Bhutti...where onions and mushrooms are there in equal measure...is another favourite. Can you imagine my grandma used to make the world's best Mushroom Bhutti. We call it Alambe bhutti. Alambe is mushroom. Alambe's in Dakshina Kannada are different. They are round small ones. )

 

Here is recipe from Archie's Authentic Touch of Piyava Bhutti:

http://archiesauthentictouch.blogspot.com/2013/08/piyava-bhutti-fried-onions-in-coconut.html

 

Piyava Thambali from Cooking with Shobana

https://www.cookingwithshobana.com/2014/06/piyava-thambali.html

 

These are such simple recipes and I have a feeling that these are getting lost. Very few of us are cooking these dishes. In the age of Food Television and social media, we are all cooking exotic dishes from all over India (if not all over the world).  Interestingly, Sanjeev Kapoor cooks a lot of dishes from our region (let's say Karanataka/Udipi/Mangalore).  Well, you may already know the answer! He eats them regularly as he is married to Alyona, who is connected with Mangalore. 

 

Piyava Gojju is another wonderful Konkani recipe. Not sure whether I have had it!

 

Here is Gayathri Pai's Food Bytes version:

http://gayathrifoodbytes.blogspot.com/2019/11/piyava-gojju-onion-spicy-dip.html

 

Many konkani dishes use a lot of onions. Batate song is another iconic favourite. Piayava vodi (something which you fry)

 

Hope you did not have tears while reading this blog on onions.