ONION BHAJIS (Onion Rings fried in gram flour batter)

Preparation and cooking time: 40 mins.

This is one of the many Indian starter dishes. It can also be used as a snack served with a glass of wine, etc. For this recipe you will need a liquidizer and a deep frying pan or wok.

Ingredients

• 10g (½oz) fresh ginger, peeled
• 10 g (½oz) fresh garlic, peeled
• 4 green chilies
• 85 g (3 oz) besan flour (gram flour)
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp chili powder
• ½ tsp garam masala
• ½ tsp tandoori masala
• 90 ml (3 fl oz) water
• 2 largish onions, cut into rings
• 600 ml (20 fl oz) cooking oil for deep frying

Method

• Put the ginger, garlic and green chilies into a liquidizer and process
• until very finely chopped.
• Sieve the gram flour into a mixing bowl. Add the contents of the liquidizer, salt, chili powder, garam masala, tandoori masala and mix well. 
• Add the water and mix well again into a thick, smooth batter.
• Add the onion rings to the batter and mix gently so that the onions are well covered with batter.
• Heat the oil to a high temperature in a small wok, or deep frying pan.
• When the oil is hot, remove the onion rings one at a time from the batter and deep fry in the oil. This method of frying onions is similar to frying chips or fish in batter. Fry only 6 to 7 rings at a time.
• 5. Serve the onion bhajis while they are still hot.