Preparations:

Take black gram in a bowl and wash it. Add water to the washed gram and soak it for 3 to 4 hours. Grind the soaked gram in a mixer grinder adding very little water.

Peel the onions and keep them aside. Fix a thin slicer blade in a food processor bowl and slice the peeled onions. You can use any thin slicer blade to slice the onions. Take a broad vessel and add the sliced onions. Add salt to the onions and mix well. After mixing with salt onions become soft. Then add the ground black gram and mix well.

Spread a plastic sheet in an open place under sun. Spread the onion mixture evenly on the plastic sheet. Dry these onions in hot sun. By evening if you observe, lot of moisture is evaporated from the onion mixture. Take the half dried onions on to a plate. Daily keep this onion plate under sun and dry them till they are crisp. Once they become crisp cool them and store in a dry bottle.

Method:

Heat about 1/4cup of oil in a pan. When the oil is hot lower the flame and add sufficient quantity of dried onions and fry. Fry them till they attain golden color. Remove them immediately or else they turn dark in color. Even when they are removed from the hot oil they change color because they get fried further with the heat retained in them. So it is better to remove them as soon as they start changing color. Use these fried onions in Biriyanis and Pulaos to get that extra crunchy taste.

Points to Notice:

Usually for Biriyani recipe we use deep fried brown onions. When onions are deep fried and browned, they absorb lot of oil. So we feel heavy after eating the Biriyani in which these browned onions are used. To avoid that we can substitute them with these sun dried onions which are fried in little oil. To get that crunchy texture we are using black gram as a binding agent. If you want extra crunchy onions use some more black gram and dry the onions. In summer season prepare these sun dried onions in large quantities and store them. As and when required just fry the sufficient quantity of these onions in oil and use them. They are not heavy on stomach compared to the deep fried browned onions.