Many recipes recommend adding garlic to the pan at the same time as the onions. However, by the time my onions are lightly browned my garlic is burned and bitter-tasting! Any advice much appreciated.

You can add it when onions are almost done. I usually chop my onions, ginger and garlic all together in a food processor and don't have this problem. genarally, I leave them frying on medium heat while I get on with other work in the litchen. Is your heat too intense?

i normally start the pan off on med high to fry any whole spices and then seeds. then i add the ginger and fry that for a few seconds and then i add the onions and stir quickly (because the spices are still at the bottom of the pan so i do not want them to burn). once i have mixed in the onions i reduce the heat to med and fry them for about 10 minutes then i add the garlic and reduce the heat to med low until the onions are nicely browned. sometimes it can take about 30 minutes before the onions are nicely browned. i have found (with certain dishes) that if the garlic is not cooked properly that it leaves a rancid taste on the overall result of the dish.

You will find that different pans, ovens, oils and even the garlic can make a difference. You can use the same pan on the same oven and garlic from same shop for weeks and then one week it might burn quicker or taste different.

Steve

cooking (frying) onions, garlic, ginger and chillies at the start of the curry making process is like the foundation in a building, get it wrong, and you can never recover it.

When we fry onions, we are getting rid of the water inside, and forming new flavours. Same with the other ingredients mentioned above, but they have less water. I have experimented with cooking all of these separately, and determining their weight (water) loss over time.

I have calculated the optimum times, by that is academic. We don't stand over the pot with a stop watch. I now fry onions over medium heat for about ten minutes, then add garlic, then ginger then chillies, and continue until the total time is about 20 minutes. Only this way does everything seem to work out.

I cut my onion into about 3mm dice; if using a macerater, I would add it to hot oil immediately, or else the onion becomes too acidic (which is why one often sees sugar added in some curries!!)

The key here is the word MEDIUM heat.