Why the fuss about onions today? I have been cooking extensively in the Vedic tradition, which does not typically use onion or garlic. So, it had been several weeks since I had made a dish with onions, when I made a beetroot curry that I saw on VahRehVah (link at left). The onions were optional but highly recommended. My instinct was to leave them out, but I wanted to follow the recipe as given the first time I made it, so, I made the dish with the onions. It tasted fantastic... at first. But then I realized that the onions were actually overpowering the tastes of the beet and the subtle spicings. Funny, when you cook without onions for a while, the taste comes on very strong when you do have them.
I first noticed that when I discovered Zen temple cooking a few years back. Zen temple cooking also does not use onions or garlic or related foods. Instead, it allows each ingredient to come to its full fruition. A simple boiled carrot slice, then, becomes itself, to be enjoyed for all of its orangeness, grassy bitterness, sweet overtones, firm yet smooth bite.
I think I may leave out the onions in the future and just let the tastes of the other ingredients develop themselves and shine. My sense of onions is that, because they do have such a powerful taste, they can become a sort of crutch. Need flavor? Add an onion. After a while, you get used to the onion flavor and think that that is what all food tastes like. You have forgotten that there are other flavor possibilities.
Of course, onions, too, offer their own unique experience and health benefits. (Captain Cook ordered his crew to eat raw onions every day to prevent scurvy, as if they weren't smelly enough already). I have certainly made dishes where the onion played its role, and was balanced with the rest of the dish. Macrobiotic cooking, in particular, treats onions in such a way as to allow them to complement the dish without overwhelming it.
So, use them or lose them? Use them, but rarely, and with restraint. I'll make that beetroot curry again, hold the onions.
Sorry no photos for this post. My laptop is in the shop and I am using my barebones backup.
