Just got me thinking about things I've had while out and about....

One place we used to go to when we were younger and has long since shutdown, served what we called "red onions".

At a guess it would be diced onion (white onion) with paprika on.. but if we tried that at home it was always like raw onion with something on it.. it was never quite the same... could it be they just left it in the fridge for 24hours to take the rawness away? Maybe they had dropped them in water?.. or something else?...

they were usually served with mint riata, popadums, mango chutney while waiting for your main courses to arrive...

whatever they were, you couldn't help but keep eating them...

Hello Steven

See http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=10536

Mamta

must try that... not sure if its exactly the same as I've had but..sounds great..

a very simple twist on this dish can be made as follows:

120ml of tomato ketchup

120ml of water

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of sugar

1/2 teaspoon of mint sauce

1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

mix all the ingredients together, and coat a bowl of diced raw onions with the sauce - this recipe can also be used to make a simple dipping sauce for kebabs, pakora etc

another option you have is to put your diced onions in ice water and in the fridge for 1-2 hours before draining and using as normal, this cuts the sharpness of the onions in half

hope this helps

Thanks CFM I like the iced water idea...

Hi,

What you describe sounds very much like onion kochumbar to me. I think I first saw a recipe in a book by Harvey Day yonks ago. Not identical, but you might like to try it.

a large onion (mild spanish type)_ cut in half and then cut lengthways very thinly so as to give long strips rather than rings. Drop these into cold water half an hour.

1-2 tomatoes chopped roughly. 1 greeen chilli (not too hot) seeded if preferred.

lemon juice

paprika

Drain the onions, mix with remaining ingredients, season to taste.

Doesn't keep too well. An evening or so.

I think this may be an East african asian dish, but I could be wrong there.

Whatever it is, it's a very agreeable relish

ATB

Ian

Hello Ian

Thank you for this recipe, which is a very old and very, very traditional, everyday home recipe for eating onion salad in India; thinly sliced red onions (Indian onions are slightly red anyway), salt, chilli powder and a good vinegar. You can also use lime juice. I usually make it with malt vinegar. You can add chopped green chillies and some chopped coriander leaves, but these are not usually used. It is served at most lunch times (eating raw onions in the evening gives you smelly breath!!). Perhaps it should be added to the site as onion salad! I forget to write down everyday things!

We make something similar with mooli radish too; Mooli Salad

Mamta

The onion with beetroot worked really well, thanks for that...

http://www.askcy.com/food/onionside.jpg

As did the Lentil soup (here made with yellow lentils)

http://www.askcy.com/food/lentilsoup.jpg

and the naan recipe (although my yeast was a little out of date and really didn't make it rise as much as I would have liked)

http://www.askcy.com/food/naan.jpg