in most of the indan cookery books i have read, the recipes say to use a small amout of oil to cook the recipes. the problem is that i have tried following the recipes to the book but i have noticed that the oil amount is usually too little and more is needed...otherwise the garlic sticks to the bottom of the pan and burns.

if you watch indian chefs on youtube while they are cooking a dish, they say to use one or two tablespoons of oil, but if you watch the way they pour the oil out that there is much more in their pan than they are telling the viewers to use.

i really enjoy curry but i want some advice on how to cook a curry using minimal fat(s). i don't own or desire to own any non-stick pans. what i use is a cast iron pot for cooking curry and stews etc. is there anyway that i can cook the onion and garlic mixture using minimal oil?? even if it takes an hour to do.

i a thinking about cooking a curry this evening, so i can try out any recommendations this evening.

thanks in advance.

You can fry the onion/garlic etc. in more oil and then lift out the surplus oil.

Or

You can fry in less oil and every time it begins to stick to the pan, add a tbs. or two of water and scrap it off. You can repeat this process 2-3 times, until onions are well browned.

If part of the problem is the garlic burning, is it because you are putting the garlic in first? Many recipes say add the garlic then the onions to the oil. I always do it the other way round!

the point about frying the onions is to drive off the water in them, so that they can brown a little. Garlic takes far less time, as does ginger and chillies.

I have cooked onions/garlic etc in oil, then poured the lot into a sieve, and recovered most of the original oil. Save the oil, as it is full of flavour, but use it again, so that more flavour is extracted, and that recovered is double strength, making up for a little extra new oil needed to replace that which remains on the onion, if that makes sense.

thanks to everyone for the replies. i think lapis has solved my problem. what a brilliant idea!!!

thanks everyone.