Topic: IG Onion Bhaji (Kitchen Demonstration)

[emin-j]

Hi Chris,

Razor - you really dont want to be drawing the water out of the onions using salt. Infact it is quite the opposite. I think this has been one of the biggest breakthroughs of this last week. If you salt them they will go soft and you wont be able to get the air holes within the bhaji.

Ok, fair enough, I'm now convinced that this is a no no   I will chop the onions the night before and see what that bring.  I just felt that I'd used too much gram flour at the end making them a bit heavy.  However, they were cooked all the way through, the addition of the extra flour just enabled me to shape them better.

Thanks for the tips guys.

Ray

Razor ,

I've been trying to make decent Bhaji's for month's and still haven't succeeded  but too much Gram Flour will as you say make them too heavy and they struggle to float ! Just add enough Flour so the Onions stick together , not enough and they break up when frying  Hopefully now with Axe's recipe my Bhaji's will improve  :

[Malc.]

emin,

In all that I have experienced I think the one thing that stands out is the process and understanding of the cooking procedures. None of which should be ignored and play a significant part in the bhaji. Not withstanding that the the right amount of ingredients are also as important.

Technique, which I am lacking, is the final chapter.

[bobpilot99]

Well after lots of failed attempts with onion Bhajis I had almost given up on them, but I thought I should give the IG Bhaji a go b4 I quit as I have spent many of curry evening there. the previous attempts didn't have the potato inside and what a diferance in texture, not stodgy in the middle they where very good !!

Thanks Axe great job! 

[Malc.]

Bob,

I'm glad it worked OK for you. I must admit, it does take a little practice to get them right. It's all about having just enough batter and working each step through. but once you have that mastered, your home and dry.

[Willyeckerslike]

These worked a treat Axe, thanks for the post.  Definately the best by far I have made but I wasn't sure if the texture was right when trying to mould them into balls, the onions were very loose but plonked them into the fryer anyway and they held together far better than I thought they would.  Taste was great too ;D

cheers

Will

[Malc.]

It is hard to explain the batter as the balance has to be right. The important part is making sure that you work the onion. Although on a smaller scale, I follow the IG steps exactly i.e. mixing each ingredient into the onion before adding the next. This helps to soften the onion.

The batter is also quite hard to get right as you an easily be fooled into thinking you need more liquid. But what actually happens is it loosens towards the end of mixing. you are lookign for a very sticky batter that has to be scraped from your hands. You need enough onion so that when mixed, there doesn't seem like enough batter to hold the onion.

Grab a bowl of water and wet both hands. Take a handful of the mixture and roll from hand to hand (this is simliar to how a chef would use two spoons to make a Quinnell). You should end up with a palm sized ball (about cricket ball sized)that feels heavy, but is smooth and round. Drop this into the deep fat fryer and away you go.

When you get the techinique down, you'll find you can knock them out quite quick. This helps to stop the first in from over cooking too.

I'm glad to hear you liked them, makes the blood and sweat all the more worth while.

[joshallen2k]

I've made these and they are the best bhaji's I've made yet.

Unfortunately though, I couldn't find aniseed and used fennel.

How much am I missing using fennel instead of aniseed?

Is it worth the extra search? And if there's an Indian name for aniseed that may help. I've never used this ingredient.

Thx,
Josh

[Malc.]

Josh,

You'd think that the difference between Aniseed and Fennel is very marginal and I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking otherwise. The differences are subtle in the seed but they do make a difference in the finished bhaji.

Its hard to really explain the difference but Aniseed has a more pure, clean, aniseed taste. It is much fresher and more delicate than Fennel and gives a slight warmth to the back of your mouth after eating. Its also alot smaller and incorporates itself much better into the mix.

Is it worth the extra search? YES

Like you I was using Fennel until I was pointed in the right direction for Aniseed. There's no going back now, it really does make a noticeable difference.

http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/acatalog/Indian-Food-Rajah-Greenfields-Aniseed.html

[chriswg]

I totally agree, I don't even really like the taste of aniseed, but it really put the finishing touches to the bhajis. I find they help sort of bring out the sweetness of the onions. Once you have tried them, you'll never turn back.

[Secret Santa]

Well I've just made my second batch of these to the reduced recipe provided by Axe:

4 Onions (size about 5cm diameter)
1 - 2 Cups Gram Flour
1 tbl Corriander Leaf
1/2 Sml Potato
1 Egg Beaten
1/2 tsp Aniseed
1/2 tsp Hot Chilli Powder
1/2 tsp IG Spice Mix (here: http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4442.0)
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Drop Yellow Food Colouring (Optional)

In summary I had mixed results.

1. Aniseed. A pointless addition in my opinion, unless this is what you are accustomed to from your BIR. It was there, I could taste it, but it isn't something I am used to in bhajis and I don't really like it. But then again I don't hate it either!

2. Consistency. I made the best bhajis I have ever made. The only 'trick' for me though is the addition of egg which I had not tried previous to this recipe. The bhajis were really crispy and light and cooked all the way through. I don't like that raw looking onion-batter mix I've seen in some of the photos but this was cooked all the way through.

3. Potato. Well until I make another batch without the spuds I'm still not totally convinced about the need them but, there's no denying that this time the bhajis turned out really well with them in.

4. Flavour. There's really something wrong here. In my first attempt I scaled down the quantities in my head from the original recipe and the flavour was lacking in my opinion. I put this down to making an error in the scaling down.
I've now used the scaled version above and it is even worse! They were just so lacking in flavour. I could tell that the right sort of flavour was there but, it was just so muted and lacked the depth that I am used to in BIR bhajis.

I am surprised that people are raving about this bhaji so much. I can see no way I could have botched this one and as I say the texture for me was perfect but the flavour is a real let down!

Axe is the recipe above correct? Should those 1/2 tsp measures actually be tablespoons for example?