Very easy to make Onion Bhajis

Why would I buy Onion Bhajis when they are so easy to make...and so much better when they're homemade! My real issue is with take-away food, rather than restaurants. If you go to any Indian restaurant worth its salt, and you get great quality, authentic bhajis (and everything else), but go to a take away and I find you're often paying well over the odds for food that is sub-standard. It's as it they just don't care...or, that they know the customer doesn't care or know any better!

When I first started making Onion Bhajis, it was because I wanted to replicate (loosely) what I got in restaurants, rather than have a moan to the Wife about the low quality take-away food and how much it costs.

The following recipe I am not claiming to be authentic, but I am going to claim that it is easy to follow and and great tasting. I do hope you enjoy!

• 2 medium size onions
• 200g Gram Flour (approx)
• 2 green chillies
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon of tumeric
• 1 teaspoon of ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 cup of water (approx)
  

First off, get those onions, peel away the outer skin, then slice thinly so you're left with lots of circles. Don't separate the rings. It's best they're left in tact. Just see the first picture. The reason I slice them thinly is so they cook properly when it gets to that stage.

Next, slice each 'circle of onion' right down the middle. I put a few of the circles on top of one another, so it makes the process a bit quicker. Once you have done this, put them in a mixing bowl and well, mix them up. You need to do this so all the half-rings of onion separate.

Now, finely chop the two green chillies. Then mix these in with the onion. You don't have to use green, or two! It's up to you. If you like very spicy food, use three, if not maybe use two red chillies instead.

Measure out the ground ginger, ground coriander, tumeric and salt. Add this to the 200g of Gram Flour. Mix together and pour this onto the onion and chillies.

WARNING: Messy and sticky finger alert!

Get your half a cup of water ready. First though, mix the flour and spices around the bowl with the onion and chillies. This will help coat the onion a little. Then add your water!

TIP: Make sure you've got a bowl of water, apron or towl you can wipe your hands on.

Get all the mixture infused together. The flour and water amounts are really a startign guide. You will probably need to add more of each until, finally, you have a bowl full of onion coated in your onion bhaji batter. You shouldn'tmake the batter too runny, it really needs to be quite thick so it clings to the onion.

Once you're happy with your mixture, you're ready to start cooking.

Heat up a good amount of oil in your wok. Remember the heat test: throw in a piece of onion to see if it sizzles; if it does, you're ready to go.

Get a small portion of the onion bhaji mixture and carefully put it in the pan (see image). I do about four in the pan at a time. Often, bhajis are deep fried, but I prefer to shallow fry them for about two minutes on each side.

Don't be too strict with the time. Just go for golden brown, rather than burnt brown! Certainly avoid black! Have a plate at the ready to put the cooked bhajis on, get more mixture in the pan and keep cooking until its all gone. You'll end up with anywhere between 8 and 16!

There really is nothing simpler or more effective to accompany Onion Bhajis (or other Indian starters) than mint/yogurt sauce.

• Put 250ml of plain yogurt in a bowl
• Mix 2 teaspoons of mint sauce into the yogurt.

That's it! Get it all served up