/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.17950906]

For Chicken Tikka Masala, I've always used white onions.

My general philosophy is that red onions are better for fresh applications and white onions are better for cooked applications, with some exceptions made to account for red onions having a more characteristic "fruity" taste than white onions, and are not always the best match for a fresh application.

But, an Indian friend explained to me that for Indian Cooking*, red onions are used almost exclusively, and that I should always use red onions in CTM. Having tried them, I found red onions didn't affect the flavor so much (since the spices/tomato were the biggest players in the dish) but made the dish considerably uglier, which is saying something because it's a dish that already wasn't going to win any beauty prizes.

So, which way to go? Do I stick to white onions for the sake of appearances, or do I use red onions for distant authenticity and for the hope that some measure of the red onion's flavor is able to add to a dish that already has ten different things competing for prominence?

*(yes, everyone knows CTM originated from England, but it's based on Indian dishes like butter chicken and has become a staple in Indian restaurants)

[Anonymous No.17950930]

>>17950906
Stick with whatever you think tastes best. Often times the most authentic recipes aren't necessarily the absolute best recipe possible, theyre based on tradition and local availability of ingredients.

[Anonymous No.17950951]

Red onions are objectively better for BOTH raw and cooked. Everything else is just poorfag cope.


The only exception is that yellow onions can have a better mellow flavor in soups and stews.

[Anonymous No.17950954]

I've used shallots cause they are more available here

[Anonymous No.17950982]

>>17950951
I think of onions a lot in a way similar to how I think of vinegars. And, while something like a red wine vinegar can add complexity and flavor beyond just adding acid, there's a lot of times you want a pure "bright" acid, and that's where distilled white vinegar comes into play.
It's not about money, it's about the right ingredient for the right purpose.

[Anonymous No.17951143]

>>17950906
>made the dish considerably uglier
I don't understand how this would be possible, it's blended into a sauce and I doubt a slightly different shade of brown is that bad.

[Anonymous No.17951229]

>>17951143
I typically go about half very thinly sliced (to be sacrificed to the sauce gods), with the remaining onion sliced thicker so it doesn't completely dissolve, to add some variety to the sauce's texture. I generally dislike sauces that are too homogenous (they often end up feeling too "processed"), and I think people generally like a dish better the more they can identify what's in it.

With red onion, that means the bits of onion are the color of cooked red onion, and that's not a pleasant look.

[Anonymous No.17951274]

>>17950906
should try red onions as that is what they normally use in india.

[Anonymous No.17951289]

>>17950906
You've lost your message, Irish Stew Guy.

[Anonymous No.17951331]

>>17951229
Fair enough, I can't really imagine that being ugly personally, but it seems like the solution presents itself: Red onion thinly sliced for the sauce, white onion for the chunks.

[Anonymous No.17951368]

>>17951331
Maybe it's just me, but cooked red onions have an unappealing beetle/cockroach/worm quality to them. They're delicious, but not very pretty.
Funnily, pickled red onions on the other hand end up being genuinely beautiful.

[Anonymous No.17951433]

White onions are not as flavorful as the other two in my opinion.

[Anonymous No.17951459]

>>17950930
This, plus when new ingredients show up they rapidly become part of traditional cooking, much like tomatoes and pasta. If you like white onions best, just use them

Plus as already said, it's not an "authentic" recipe anyway so it doesn't matter

[Anonymous No.17951465]

>>17951143
If your tikka masala isn't a vibrant, glowing red with a crunch in the sauce coming from undissolved sugar and bone dry chicken from yesterday, you won't be getting the authentic British indian experience

[Anonymous No.17951478]

>>17951368
>metal spoon
>nonstick pan
fool

[Anonymous No.17951548]

>>17951368
I can see what you mean there actually, wouldn't have occurred to me because I love red onions. They are a gorgeous colour pickled. When I make Malay curry I throw in large chunks of red onion a few minutes before finishing cooking so they're mostly still solid, that might be another compromise.

[Anonymous No.17951564]

>>17950906
>Chicken Tikka Masala
>Indian
It was invented by a Paki living in Scotland you stupid cunt,

[Anonymous No.17951573]

>>17950906
>So, which way to go?
like any dish, make it the way you want to make it. If the recipe needs to be altered, alter it.

[Anonymous No.17951719]

>>17951564
There's a number of people in Britain who claim they were the first ones to make the dish, everywhere from London to Glasgow, and even some claims that it was made first in India and then brought over to Britain.

At the end of the day, it wouldn't be surprising if multiple people individually came up with it, largely because there's so much diversity in the recipes you can find today with many different origins, and in the end it's a pretty basic dish.

[Anonymous No.17951748]

Onion varieties are more distinct than just white or red. A red onion from india will taste different than your local one. Personally I don't think anyone should be eating indian produce given how many corners they cut but if you want authenticity try getting dehydrated onion flakes from india to use (for flavor) with your local onions

[Anonymous No.17951846]

>>17951478
Looks more like a ceramic pan.

[Anonymous No.17951912]

Red onions taste AWFUL and give you bad breath that lingers for hours. I'll never understand people who actively choose to use red onion in whatever food their preparing. Just horrid.

[Anonymous No.17951961]

Indian cuisine uses small red onions, the closest Western equivalent being shallots.

[Anonymous No.17952015]

>>17951961
They seem to just use regular ass red onions, t. has watched a lot of Indian street food in his time and can tell by the designations.

[Anonymous No.17952020]

>>17952015
I realise after posting that those don't look like red onions so fuck me I guess.

[Anonymous No.17952023]

>>17952015
They are slightly different to red onions. Smaller, and with a stronger flavour.
Shallots are more similar, but there is an ethnic store in my town that sells the proper Indian kind, and can confirm they are not like the big red onions we have in the West.
All said though, you can't really go wrong with a regular brown onion if that's all you have available.

[Anonymous No.17952066]

>>17952023
I've been labouring under a misapprehension for years. This was the webm I meant to post even and I can see the difference now.

[Anonymous No.17952261]

I forget which video I heard this in, but one guy called these "large onions"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrkV4qp2-PQ&t=136s
It's some sort of old onion in the shallot's lineage. Shallots are the closest thing but they're expensive. Sweet and white onions are close enough. More similar than our red onions at least.
A bonus perk if you get shallots or sweet onions is you can make this side dish laccha pyaz while the curry cooks. Eating raw red onion on its own is suicidal and not advised.

[Anonymous No.17952402]

>>17952261
>Raw red onion is suicical
Really? It's an option at subway, and while many of their ingredients could count as poisonous I've never heard of anyone getting sick because of the red onion

[Anonymous No.17952430]

>>17952402
Red onion in the UK is the mildest kind, really nice raw in a sandwich or salad, so when I see people on /ck/ talking about how stronk it is I have to assume they mean a different kind of onion.
Shallots are strong and they are red so maybe it's those?

[Anonymous No.17952564]

>>17952430
Weird. Do you get the Indian kind since you're reverse colonized? Our red onions are freaking massive and as eye-wateringly sulfurous as yellow cooking onions. They're basically just yellow onions except bigger and redder and exclusively used by restaurants to give food bright color. From the context of being sliced across the equator into ringlets then left in a restaurant's fridge, the enzymes have time to make them brutal by the time you eat it. They're monstrosities bred for the food service industry.

[Anonymous No.17952640]

>>17952564
Not him but as a german I can say out red onions are less sharp and have a fruity flavor and are at a size of a tennis ball tops, usually a bit smaller.