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General Usage : Pastes prepared by grinding onions together with a variety of spices are known in quite many countries. Since raw onions easily turn bitter, such pastes must be prepared fresh and used without much delay; alternatively, they can be preserved by adding some acid (e.g., vinegar or lemon juice). Indonesia displays a great variety of onion-based spice pastes (bumbu); from the New World, Jamaican jerk is the most famous example. Both concoctions are mostly used to marinate meat or fish.
In India, onion is the basis of most sauces and gravies. Nearly every North Indian recipe starts with the same procedure: Fry chopped onions slowly, add spices (frequently fresh garlic and ginger and dried spices like coriander, cumin, nigella, turmeric, black cardamom, chillies) and fry until the onion turns golden. The mixture (wet masala) may afterwards be pureed, simmered with tomatoes or yoghurt, or just added to boiling vegetables or meat. In the Imperial cuisine of Northern India (moghul cuisine), gravies are prepared in a similar way; yet aromatic spices (cinnamon, Indian bay-leaves and cloves) are used more lavishly at the cost of pungent chillies.
Gravies based on onion are prepared in another way in Burma, whose unique situation between China, India and Thailand has given rise to a unique cuisine. The dishes called "curries" in Burma are meat cubes or vegetables braised in a rich spicy gravy prepared in advance: Onions, vinegar, garlic, fresh ginger, cumin, coriander and of course chillies are blended to a smooth paste and fried in sesame oil until the fat separates from the gravy. By the long frying procedure, Burmese curries acquire a very complex taste not easily found in the cuisines of other countries.
By frying, onion changes its taste and turns more sweet and aromatic; the flavour develops best after long frying in comparatively cool fat.
Fried onion rings are popular in Central Europe as a decoration, e.g., for German mashed potatoes, but they are also known in Vietnam and especially in Indonesia, where nasi goreng (fried rice) is nearly always topped with them. After removal of the fat used for frying, they can be stored for several hours without losing their crisp texture, provided they are kept in an air-tight container.
Onions may also be dried, in which case they again change their flavour and turn more garlic-like. Onion powder is a rather popular spice in the South of the US and in México, and forms part of commercially available chile-con-carne spice mixtures (together with cumin, oregano, garlic, pepper and chillies).
Onion is often combined with garlic to form wet masalas in several Indian preparations.The popularity of Kanda lasun masala is mainly due to extensive use of onion,garlic and chillies in a single dish.
Shallots stem from a closely related plant, Allium ascalonicum. They are smaller and grow in clusters with up to five bulbs; their taste is somewhat finer and less pungent. Shallots are most popular in Northern France, where they are essential for sauces based on red wine. Contrasting the usage of ordinary onion, shallots are never fried (because the French believe them to turn bitter on frying), but mostly cooked or braised (e.g., for sauces made from red wine). Shallots are called for by the classic recipe sauce béarnaise.
Quite many Far Eastern cookbooks suggest to use shallots instead of onions, since the latter are closer to Asian onions both with respect to size and flavour. Shallots are particularly suited to substitute onions in the Indonesian spice paste bumbu. test
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Medical Usage : Onion is one of the civilization’s oldest medicines.It was reputed in Ancient Mesopotamia to cure virtually any disease.Onion was preferably used raw to act as a stimulant,diuretic,expectorant and rubifacient.It has antioxidants in it known to be anti cancerous.It is known to inhibit human stomach cancer.It thins the blood, lowers the blood cholesterol,raises good-type HDL cholesterol,wards of blood clots and fights asthma,bronchitis,hay fever,diabetes,atherosclerosis and infections.Onion has several sulphur compounds due to which it is considered an antiseptic.It is used to relieve flatulence and dysentry.Freshly expressed onion juice has bactericidal properties.Onion is also used to relieve aches and pains especially of the eye.Onion is also cooling and was used to relieve common cold and cough.
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