<p>OP, pureeing onions in a food processor–or even mincing them in a food processor–releases a lot more liquid than chopping by hand, which makes it more difficult to brown them.</p>
<p>Madhur Jaffrey sometimes uses both thinly sliced onions AND a processor/blender puree of onion, garlic, and ginger plus turmeric and tomato in her recipes. The sliced onions will often be browned with whole spices, and the puree cooked separately then added. If she is using ground cumin or coriander–in addition to whole spices–they will often be added to the puree as it cooks.</p>
<p>I think this is a method she came up with to substitute for having a woman come in every morning to laborious pound the spice mixes for the day using a mortar and pestle, as well-to-do Indian households often seem to have done. In any case, it works beautifully.</p>
<p>I tried frozen chopped onions for the first time recently and found they delayed my cooking instead of saving time. They were so watery that it took a long time for the water to boil off before I could start saut</p>
<p>I also never scorch my food unless i am making toast - I like burnt toast. But why would you burn your food on purpose? ( Which i differentiate from browning) Plus itis heck on your cookware.</p>
<p>Running the oven fan while chopping onions seems to cut down on the tears, too.</p>
<p>But my number one secret for superbly chopped onions, garlic, or any other veggie needed for what I’m cooking is:</p>
<p>My H. :)</p>
<p>He loves chopping and peeling veggies. All I have to do is put the order in (six cloves–two chopped, four whole; or two onions–one small chopped, one half-moons, etc etc) and I get little bowls of prepped, cooking-ready veggies–just like on a cooking show!</p>
<p>I tried that out four years ago. Never doing it again. But I have tried smashing onions with a mortar and pestle, or using a cheese grater. The problem is that the cheese grater becomes hard to clean. </p>
<p>If you blend ginger and garlic though, the water boils off pretty quickly-- you just need a minute or two. This also allows you to dissolve some of the sugar – when the water evaporates, the sugar will transition into the hot oil.</p>
<p>I use sweet yellow onions, vidalia usually, and keep them in the fridge. No crying when choppng a cold one! I chop several of them with a sharp knife and freeze what I don’t use in a ziploc. I do the same with celery and carrots, so there is never an old, rotting one in the fridge and no waste. It cuts down on prep time when making a soup or any other recipe that calls for chopped onion, celery, and carrot if you can quickly grab what you need from the freezer.</p>
<p>A trick I learned this month and it works for me: If I’m chopping onions and it gets to my eyes, open the freezer (on frig) and stick my face in. Works in seconds. Why does it work? The dry air?</p>
In any case, it works beautifully.</p>