Britain and Ireland · Volume 37, South Asian and Caribbean Britain
Onion Bhaji
British curry house
Illustration
- Time
- 20 minutes
- Researched
- 4 sources cited
The curry house starter, deep-fried gram flour and onion, built for a menu's opening course.
As tradition built it
Serves 4 as a starter. About 20 minutes.
Ingredients
- 200 g gram flour
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 0.5 tsp ground turmeric
- 0.5 tsp chilli powder
- 2 large onions, thinly sliced
- a handful a handful of fresh coriander, chopped
- as needed water, to bind
- enough for deep frying vegetable oil, for deep frying
- to taste salt
Method
- Mix the gram flour with the cumin, coriander, turmeric, chilli powder and salt.
- Add the sliced onion and coriander, and mix thoroughly by hand, working the onion until it releases enough moisture to bind the mixture.
- Add a little water only if needed, to a thick, just-holding batter clinging to the onion rather than a smooth batter drowning it.
- Heat oil to 180°C, and drop in rough tablespoons of the mixture.
- Fry 3 to 4 minutes, turning once, until deep golden brown and crisp.
- Drain, and serve hot with mint or tamarind chutney.
What a modern chef changes
The same batter, fried to hold its crispness longer than a curry house's fast turnover ever needs to manage.
Kit note, not tied to a numbered rung.
Method
- Rest the onion and salt together for 15 minutes before adding the gram flour, drawing out more of the onion's own moisture in a controlled way rather than relying on hand-mixing alone.
- Fry once at a lower temperature to cook through, rest, then fry again briefly at a higher temperature to crisp, a double-fry discipline borrowed from nowhere in this cuisine specifically but genuinely useful wherever a fritter needs to survive longer than a few minutes on a plate before eating.
- Drain standing on a wire rack rather than kitchen paper, so steam escapes downward instead of softening the base.