Bhaji cravings were reignited by the last visit to the best local Indian restaurant.

I had a 2 year old box of GITS pakora mix packed for vacation. Onions were fresh out of the ground. I followed directions mainly on the GITS box, minus coriander and chili and used coconut oil for frying instead of PUFA oil. Results were better than any restaurant.

The next batch, after the GITS mix was used up was a disaster, probably the worst bhajis ever as I had to use canned chickpeas. Soggy oily disaster.

Next attempt at home was with Hewa brand chickpea flour and  usual spices like salt, chili, asafoetida and bicarb. Edible but not good. I had also been messing around with adding rice flour to the mix. Intersesting the GITS uses ajwain in their mix. Every time I use that spice it ruins what I'm making.

So my suspicions are that the besan/gram has to be real besan, not chickpea, as western chickpea is not the same as Indian. The besan probably has to be roasted. Some brands might just be raw ground besan. Coconut oil makes a good difference.

I went back to the GITS packets and again another perfect bhaji, no rice flour added this time. Perfectly crunchy, perfect cook, no raw flavor. Oil needs to be HOT, don't put too many bhajis in the pot at once, and make them on the small side so they cook through easier, and slice the onions very thin.

I would like to be able to make my own pakora powder though. I bought a bag of besan this time, not chickpea flour, but it's untested.

The spices are important but less important than the above imo.  Letting the onions sit in the powder without adding water does work to draw water out of them. But maybe they get soggy as a result of losing their water?? not sure.

I'm out of practice a bit:

The last few ad hoc curries are horrible. The base sauces I used in the past and the newer glasgow are great.

Some people say that burning garlic makes it bitter, but I've made a lot of singapore noodles  scorching the curry powder and garlic in oil and water and that never seemed to be too bitter, actually it tastes very good this way burning the spices.

The last few curry attempts I used a lot of ginger garlic paste and tried to scorch it in the base and it tasted horrible. Then I tried just cooking it regular temp and it tasted terrible again, same as the scorched one. One was made with ginger powder/fresh garlic, one with home made ginger/garlic paste. I'm trying to get more ginger into the mix for health reasons. I'll sometimes do a teaspoon or two of ginger powder in water and it tastes fine, but in the curries it is not working.

I tasted the garlic/ginger paste raw and it's fairly bitter so the culprit is in there somewhere, just not sure if I'm overcooking, undercooking, or some other unknown.

I'm wondering if I have a bad batch or garlic here or something, but it looks fresh.

I've been doing more with coriander and cumin, and started grinding my own spices.

Is it impossible to get coriander as finely ground as turmeric or garlic powder?

If you want to get all the coarse grounds out is it best to use a fine mesh sieve before cooking?

Maybe I need a better grinder? This one was a standard electric coffee grinder, not cheap but not pricey.

The takeaway place here never has anything  coarse in the palak or other curries.

Also tried dry roasting coriander and maybe burned it a little. I stopped roasting well before there was any aroma but still seems like I burned it, or maybe the fresh ground has a very different smell?

rapeseed oil is  toxic to at least animals and probably humans. they changed the name to canola for exactly this reason. but then again, who knows, since indian cooking has its roots in ayurveda which is steeped in alchemical tradition, so it wouldn't surprise me if some seemingly innocent cooking process transformed it to be non toxic.

refined peanut oil and soy or sunflower tastes the best as they are fairly neutral.

as far as health goes, it is probably healthiest to use saturated fats like real ghee, palm or coconut oil as they aren't damaged too badly by cooking. if you want to go the extra mile (or 10) with your korma you can press your own coconut cream with certain types of juicers and fresh coconut meat.

i started using unrefined red palm oil recently and it works well, but you have to have sufficient amount of spice to mask the palm flavor. raw, it tastes terrible, but after cooking with spices it is good -- maybe not as good as peanut but still good. also keep in mind that the unsaturated oils are more fluid than the saturated ones, so when cooled the unsaturated will still be fluid but the saturated fats will solidify.

i have  a feeling that all of the spices transform some of these supposedly unhealthy vegetable fats into less unhealthy or possibly healthy fats.

most people agree that any form of trans fats are not good -- some vegetable ghee brands use trans fats, others not.

seems a waste to discard all of the marinade.

anyone ever cook with it or find a way to use it?