Onions and garlic that haven’t died in the bowl

Onions in my house do not live in a closed bag in a damp kitchen. They need dryness and air. In a bowl on the table an onion often sweats, puts roots into the neighbouring tomato and smells so that tea is no longer tea. So they go in a net or a dark drawer, apart from potatoes if I can. Potato and onion together spoil faster; I have already learned that with my nose. The kettle clicks, and the onion still sits where it can breathe.

A good onion is in a dry jacket, heavy, without a soft side. A green shoot from the middle — it is already thinking of a flower, not of soup. I can cut it and still fry it if the bulb is firm. If the side has caved in and leaked — no. Garlic — a dense head, the cloves not dancing inside, no yellow spots and no mould between the skins. A sprouted clove with a green heart is bitter: I take the heart out if I am sorry to throw the whole clove away. In the pan, onion speaks first. Oil, a pinch of salt, a medium heat, the smell gathers the house at once. If the heat is high — it burns outside and stays raw inside, and smells of anger. I do not hurry. While the onion turns gold I can put the kettle on and cut the carrot. Garlic goes in later: it burns faster and then it is bitter through the whole borscht. At the end, a minute, and the hob quieter.

Spring onions in a glass of water on the window live a few days if I change the water. Limp ones from a bag do not always come back. Garlic scapes in summer, if I find them, I cut into fried eggs — a young smell, not so fierce. In winter I simply have heads in a bowl with holes, not in a bag “so it doesn’t smell”. It will smell anyway, only it will also suffocate. For the children, onion in soup is often “too much”: I cut it finer, fry it until sweet, then it passes. Raw onion with herring is for adults, and let it stand separately. I force no one to love raw onion for the sake of character. Onion skins I sometimes throw into broth for colour, if the skin is clean and gold. Garlic skins — no. After garlic I scrub the board with salt and half a lemon if tomorrow there will be dough on this board: dough that smells of yesterday’s garlic does the pie no favours. Cut onion does not live in a box for a week as “convenient”. Half a day, at most until evening. After that it is already another smell, not the one I cried over the board for.

Onions in my house live where there is air. And in yours — in a bowl on the table, in a drawer, or already putting roots into the potatoes, as in many ordinary kitchens?