Birista (Crispy Fried Onions)

Birista is onion finely sliced and deep fried in oil till golden brown & crisp. Most of Bohra Dish is incomplete without birista. You will be surprised to see how this simple thing can take your everyday food to another level. In bohra cuisine birista is used for making gravies, korma’s & even used as toppings for many traditional recipes like lagan seekh, khichda, biryani, akhni pulao and many more.

As a kid I used to eat birista as a snack. While mom would get ready for deep frying onion. I would follow her in the kitchen and eat the barista as they came out of the oil, perfectly crisp. She would ward me off, complaining how nothing will be left for preparing the dish. Mom says making perfect light brown birista is an art & needs a lot of patience & constant attention.

These fried onions are full of flavor and enhance the dish to a great extent. So lets make it..

Ingredients:

3 onions , thinly slice with mandolin
oil for deep frying

Method:

Cut onions into thin slices. The key to crispy fried onions is thinly sliced onions.

Heat oil deep fry pan or kadai, heat it on medium flame, Add onions to the kadai depending on the size of kadai, the onions should submerge in the oil. It took me 3 batches to fry 3 onions.

Using a spatula, give the onions a quick stir to make sure they are separated.
Keep stirring in between so that all the onions are fried well.
You need to watch it. Once the onions goes to that light golden, it doesn’t take much time to go to brown, dark brown and black!
Once you see they have attended a light brownish color. Strain them out. The onions will continue to brown.

Remove the onions and let them drain on a tissue towel.
The onions need to be spread on an open surface without being crowded. Allow air to crisp it up while it cools. When completely cooled store in an air tight container.

Repeat the process until all onions are deep-fried.