Chopped and sauteed/ fried onions that are ready to use,make it possible to put dinner on the table in 15-20 minutes. Most recipes, especially Indian recipes, start with chopping and sauteing an onion! Sauteed,caramelized onions are the base for most curries,chana,rajma,paneer,biryani and meat dishes, so if we could have that part taken care of,an Indian meal or any meal that requires sauteed onions would be one step closer to getting done.
This is a boon for working moms who need to have lunch/dinner ready before going to work or as soon as they come back. You have the option to do a small amount for each week, then you don’t need to freeze it, or make a large quantity like I did and freeze it. I usually make a big batch in December as work starts for me in the first week of January and continues till mid April. For people not familiar with ‘Tax Season’ its not your usual 9-5 job. Most days are 10-12 hour days and involves working weekends as well! Dinner has to be served by 6 pm as next day is a school night and working day,so its just not possible to come home and start cooking.Below I have shared some things that I do to make my life easy.
This is also a good way to plan for a large party/gathering or if you have parents/in laws coming to visit. If you can prep the onions,by chopping,sauteing/frying and freezing them, then the day of your party all you have to do is basically put things together,because the most important and time consuming step of peeling,chopping,grinding and browning onions, has been taken care of. According to Still Tasty-Your ultimate shelf life guide, cooked onions in the freezer have a shelf life of 10-12 months and if frozen properly,indefinitely! Now I don’t recommend keeping it for that long, just thought would share some facts!
If you are reading this post,then you also like me wear many hats. I am a mom, cook,full time tax professional for 4 months,blogger and have a pretty active social life. I also have to keep up with my CE hours and work towards my certifications as well,so I also study till late at night! So I have to be very organized and utilize my time well. I have been asked by a few of my readers, how I manage to juggle work and home.This is what I do- I usually always plan the night before what is going to be our breakfast, lunch and dinner. If anything needs soaking, grinding,chopping or thawing, then it’s done at night. I do use my pressure cooker and crock pot a lot. So for example, if I had to make Rajma/kidney beans for dinner the next day,I soak it at night,in the morning,I would put a little ghee/oil in pressure cooker,add jeera/cumin,whole spices, a little bit of the frozen,browned onions, ginger,garlic,tomatoes,soaked beans,give it a good stir and remove from stove(I don’t cook the rajma/beans though)Then I start getting ready for work. By the time I am fully ready, the pot cools and this may seem strange to some people, I actually put the whole pot/cooker in the fridge. Come dinner time, If I am not home,hubby or daughter takes out pan/cooker from fridge, puts it on the stove and gives a few whistles or cooks in the pan till its done! Hot meal with minimum effort! I do the same with dal-soak at night, put tarka,measure water,add salt and turmeric. Put the pan/pressure cooker in fridge. Hubby/daughter have to take it out of the fridge and put on stove,that’s it. Hot meal ready and served even when I am at work! I do the same with Achari Chicken and Chicken Pasanda or anything that requires browned onions. You may also want to read How to organize/ plan the best stressfree dinner party ,How to Organize a Diwali Mithai Exchange/Swap Party , How to lose weight while watching TV and I don’t mean on the treadmill .
So here is the written recipe followed by the pictorial one-
How to Fry/Saute and Freeze Onions for Indian Cooking
Ingredients
- 9 pounds onions peeled and cut into big chunks
- 2 1/2 cup oil
Instructions
-
Grind Onions in a food processor,little at a time.
-
In a large pan, heat oil on HIGH and put ground onions in it.
-
You don’t have to grind the entire quantity all at once, before starting.
-
Keep grinding and adding to pan.
-
Each time you add onions, mix well
-
There is a lot of water content in onions,so its important to keep the flame on High in the beginning.
-
As water dries up, the onions will start to change color from pink,to light brown to dark brown.
-
Towards end be extra careful to not overcook. The oil is hot and onions will continue to brown in the hot oil.
-
Remove from stove and cool completely.
-
COOL completely and put in Freezer ziplock bags.(I used 3, 1 gallon bags)
-
Roll with a rolling pin to flatten and smoothen.
-
Try and take out as much air as possible and LAY FLAT in Freezer.
-
Since there is no water in the fried onions,it’s very easy to break a chunk of the onions,as little or as much as you need.
Notes
Here is the step by step pictorial recipe-
9 pounds/4 kg red onions
Peel and slice/chop
Heat oil in a large pan
In food processor,grind/mince the onions(make it as coarse or as fine as you want)
Add onions to hot oil
Keep grinding/mincing onions and adding to the pan
That’s all the onions,almost to the top of the pan!
Water content will keep going down and onions will start to caramelise
Keep stirring!
Keep stirring
Done! You can use in all your curries or freeze for later use
Cool completely (looks darker in picture)
Divide into 3 portions(that way you know that each freezer bag has 3 pounds of onions)
Put in Freezer bags and roll flat.Lay them flat in your freezer
After freezing
Break a piece of only how much onion is needed, put rest back in the freezer
Please like my Facebook page to continue to get healthy,easy and tasty recipes from me
If You try my recipes, please share your feedback on my blog or my facebook page with a comment or picture. Would love to hear back from you.
akshay
i want to know the shelf life or required conditions or process of fried onion along with ginger&garlic paste. I also want to know if I pack it and use it later what kind of packing and additions required to make it working. I want that the oil/onion/and ginger garlic paste must taste fresh when it used.
Please help me to know above.
1. Shelf life of fried packed onions & ginger garlic paste.
2. shelf life increasing idea of precooked gravy initials (onion/ginger garlic past) in freezed ir unfreezed conditons.
3. idea to contained the taste fresh when it used.
Aanchal Gupta
Hi Akshay, The shelf life of the fried onions as well as minced ginger garlic paste is 5-6 months. Please make sure to use Freezer bags and not ordinary ziploc bags. Remove as much air as possible from the bags before closing. Just break a piece of the fried onions from the bag and use as much as needed. I keep ginger, garlic and onions all separate as every recipe is different and not all require all three ingredients. To make a gravy with the fried onions, start by putting some oil in a pan, add cumin or mustard seeds, let them crackle and add your fried onions(you can thaw if you wish, I just use directly from the freezer). Add ginger,garlic,spices, tomatoes etc as per the requirements of the recipe. There is no frozen taste at all, tastes absolutely fresh! To freeze minced ginger please click on How to freeze minced Ginger. Thanks and hope I answered all your questions. Please don’t hesitate to ask any more questions.