Onion vadagam/ vaduvom/ thalippu vadagam are the sundried seasoned onion where chopped onion cured in spices and later sun-dried.
This is used for seasoning Sambar and also the main ingredient in making South Indian Fish Curry. Vadagam is usually prepared in the summer months and stored for the whole year.
Usually, in a family, mom prepares and distributes to daughters and daughters-in-law. But apartment life and other factors made this distribution vanishes slowly.
Nowadays even moms started buying it ready-made from the market. The vadagam recipe is not a hectic task, but the procedure needs little care and attention.
Being away from the homeland, sun drying procedure became impossible to even the sunny days are longer here.
No sunshine or missed the summertime or not preferring the sun drying method. Then this recipe could be the best option for all these questions.
The procedure is made very simple, instead of sun drying, the dehydration process is done in the oven without taking away its originality and taste. And I'm very proud that this recipe turned out very successful.
My equation for Onion vadagam is like this, 1 day of sun drying is equal to 4 hours of oven drying. And for the resting/curing period, as usual, I allowed 12 hours of curing/soaking to get the spices to blend well.
For the oven, the setting goes for the least available setting in your oven. My oven has 170° F, so I went with this setting. You know your oven pretty well, so analyze and set the temperature as required by your oven.
The procedure is divided into resting time and baking time. Resting time is for 3 days that just need a "stirring". In the baking process, after baking test a ball by squeezing----- if it leaves the water, crumble the balls to a mixture, and soak again------If not, start tightening the balls and bake for a day.
If you are sun drying, follow the same method, instead of baking..go for sun drying for 6-8 hours in the peak summer.
How to make onion vadagam
1. Peel onion, Chop off the head and the tail.
2. Peel Garlic and them ready.
3. Using food processor minced onion, garlic and curry leaves to fine pieces. If your food processor is not working fine, then chop them manually with the knife.
4. Keep all the pieces ready, so that you may end up missing any of them.
5. Combine everything well, with the wooden ladle.
6. Cover the lid soak for 3 days, by stirring and mixing them once in 8 hours. On the second day, you might be noticing the mixture becomes moisture and little watery.
7. On the third day, Preheat the oven to the minimum setting(my oven has 170°F). Take the baking tray, and line with the baking sheet(I found parchment paper was working fine for me, for the lining).
8. Now take a fistful and squeeze tightly and arrange them in the baking tray, and collect the excess spiced water in the same vessel. Repeat the same with the remaining onion mixture.
9. Bake onion balls for 3½-4 hours. Leave the excess spiced water in the vessel, by covering with the lid and keep aside. (This is a DAY-1 pic.)
10. Once baked bring the baked onion balls to the room temperature. Then crumble all the baked onion balls to the kept aside excess onion spiced water. Allow the onion to get absorbed with spiced water for another 12-16 hours. (This is a DAY-2 pic).
11. The Next day repeats the earlier step, squeeze the onion mixture, and Bake the onion balls for 3½-4 hours and after baking leave them in the same shape. (On the second day, you may not be getting excess water while squeezing, but if you have, repeat the same process till the onion absorbs all the water content).
12. On the third day, press the onion balls tightly furthermore. Now the onion balls should be reduced in their shape. (This is a Day-3 pic).
13. Store Onion Vadagam in the airtight container and it stays good up to a year in the room temperature.
This vadagam is used for seasoning the Sambar, Meen Kuzhambu, and for making thuvaiyal.
Other seasonings you may like,
Onion vadagam/ vaduvom/ thalippu vadagam
Ingredients
- 4 kg pearl onion / shallots-chinna vengayam- finely chopped
- 1/4 cup garlic finely chopped
- 1 cup curry leaves finely chopped
- 1/4 cup cumin seeds
- 1/4 cup mustard seeds
- 1/4 cup fenugreek seeds
- 2 tbsp whole black pepper
- 1/4 cup urad dal /skinless black gram
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/4 ml caster oil
- 1/4 ml sesame oil
Instructions
- Using food processor mince onion, garlic and curry leave to fine pieces. If your food processor is not working fine, then chop them manually with the knife.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients together with a wooden ladle.
- Cover the lid soak for 3 days, by stirring and mixing them once in 8 hours. On the second day, you might be noticing the mixture becomes moisture and little watery.
- On the third day, Preheat the oven to the minimum setting(my oven has 170°F). Take the baking tray, and line with baking sheet(I found parchment paper was working fine for me, for the lining).
- Now take a fistful and squeeze tightly and arrange them in the baking tray, and collect the excess spiced water in the same vessel. Repeat the same with the remaining onion mixture.
- Bake onion balls for 3½-4 hours. Leave the excess spiced water in the vessel, by covering with the lid and keep aside. (This is a DAY-1 pic.)
- Once baked bring the baked onion balls to the room temperature. Then crumble all the baked onion balls to the kept aside excess onion spiced water. Allow onion to get absorbed with spiced water for another 12-16 hour. (This is a DAY-2 pic).
- The Next day repeats the earlier step, squeeze the onion mixture, and Bake the onion balls for 3½-4 hours and after baking leave them in the same shape. (On the second day, you may not be getting excess water while squeezing, but if you have, repeat the same process till the onion absorbs all the water content.)
- On the third day, press the onion balls tightly further more. Now the onion balls should be reduced in their shape. (This is a Day-3 pic).
- Store Onion Vadagam in the air tight container and it stays good up to a year in the room temperature.
Nutrition
Tips and Variations for Onion vadagam:
It can be made with bigger size onions too. But I think it takes longer for drying than usual and cannot be stored for a longer time.
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Madhavi K
looks very good!
Priya Anandakumar
Love vadagam sis, my mil makes the same way except dry it in the sun... gr8 work...
Manjula Bharath
Wow very arromatic vadagam ., my neighbours used to make them a lot i loved the aroma a lot !!
Shree
yum ! I love vadagams ! Lovely clicks !
Sangeetha Priya
very useful post, this time i forget to bring onion vadagam from home, bookmarking, will try sometime later 🙂
Sahasra Recipes
Useful post & I am using sun dried method one.
Jaishree
Wow very traditional receipe my mil. Use to do 5kg iwhen it dried it comes to 2.5 to 3 kg only please try this for keerai thalipu we do often
Sujatha Muralidhar
I know this is the family recipe for generations. I just tried to document it and glad you liked Jaishree.
Divya
A different method from our traditional one's..but looks a lil easy .. actually u can use white onions for this it has longer shell life say for 2 to 3 years. We hail from andhra and making it this vadagam differs slightly from ours..also I'm glad many still know the existence of this.
Sujatha Muralidhar
Thanks Divya, White onion and pearl onion are great for longer shelf life. Authentic and traditional recipes are the values of the culture. Glad you liked it too.
Sonal Raghavan
Don't you add pepper to this?
Sujatha Muralidhar
Yes, Sonal we do. I have added 2 tbsp of whole black pepper. And is mentioned in the recipe as well.