Onion bhajis

This makes quite a lot so scale accordingly

Ingredients

3 tennis ball sized onions, thinly sliced

1 tsp salt

4 Tbsp rice flour (or use cornflour)

140g gram flour (besan or chickpea flour)

1 Tbsp garlic paste - 2 cloves crushed with a little water to make a paste

2.5cm piece of ginger cut into fine julienne

2 fresh green chillies, roughly chopped

2 Tbsp neutral vegetable oil, so not olive or mustard etc

2 Tbsp finely chopped coriander

oil for deep frying

Place the onions in a bowl, sprinkle with salt. Leave for at least 30 m minutes, ideally longer. This draws some of the juices out of the onions which get used to help form the batter.
When ready to form bhajis sift the flours over the onions (including the juices) and add the garlic paste, ginger, chillies, panch photon, 2 Tbsp of oil and the coriander. Work them together with your hands to make a batter until you can form into balls - add a little water if it refuses to come together.
Heat oil for deep frying to 150-160℃. Form into golf size balls - you don't want them too big or getting centre cooked may be a problem. Fry in small batches until lightly browned and cooked through and drain on a rack or on kitchen paper - I usually check one now as undercooked bhajis aren't nice.
When all the bhajis are cooked, increase the temperature of the oil to 180℃. Fry them again in the hotter oil till you like the browning and they have crisped up. Best served immediately

The Curry Guy Bible Dan Toombs

indian bhaji