I'm not convinced Passata has any place in Indian cooking. It seems to have been developed more for the Italian market.

From some recent posts is seems the BIR's create their own tomato puree / paste. I think there is only one tomato based ingredient that is called either puree / concentrate / passata depending on the chef. The stuff the BIR's use is possibly not just out of a jar, but could well be created by simmering puree / concentrate in herbs or spices for a long time.

I do exactly the same when cooking up a batch of pizza sauce and the results taste lovely.

Make sure you make a double batch and leave half of them to dry out for a couple of days. I'll be interested to hear the results. I think it will really help intensify the flavour.

Mashed chickpeas are absolutely disgusting. I added them in once as I read a recipe somewhere online that suggested it. It was horrible.

Axe, you should give them another go. You need to halve the onions and slice pole to pole. When you add the gram flour, think birdsnest in terms of what you are looking for. Too much flour will fill in all the gaps, not enough and it wont stick together.

Does that make sense? I'm worried I had a bit of a Mikka moment there.

Gram flour - no idea. I just shook some in - similar to how he did it. Once I start working on the recipe I'll be able to get proper measurements for onion, potato and gram flour. I didnt use much, the trick seems to be in getting the onion really sticky with the egg and giving it a dusting of flour to coat everything. That way the oil gets all the way through to the middle of the bhaji and cooks it.

PKM - didnt have any and didnt use a substitute. I was more interested in the method than the flavour.

Comparable to BIR? I sometimes ask for Bhajis extra crispy when I order to make sure they arent under done. These were on a par with those from a texture point of view. I think the recipe needs either cumin or fenugreek seeds to get a bit of aniseed flavour in there. I'll be buying some lentils and PKM so I can give this a proper go.

Okay so I couldn't wait to give them a try. I didn't have lentils or kashmiri masala and I didn't bother to substitute anything so I wasn't too interested in the flavour, I wanted to know if the method brought about the right texture.

I have to say, overall I was quite impressed, this is definately a step forwards for me. By keeping the bhaji loose with a very thick batter he oil can really get to the middle.

For me, the oil temp was too high at 180 but I think 160 will produce good results. At 180 they are browning in under a minute so you know the onion and potato wont be cooked. Sure enough the first batch was pretty raw after the second cook through.

The second batch at around 160 worked much better and was cooked through to the middle. I also gave up on trying to make fist sized ones in favour of palm sized ones.

I also think if you were to leave these for a few hours between first and second cook this would improve them even further.

Overall a good experiment and I think this will definitely form the basis of my final perfect recipe. Hopefully it wont take long from now to perfect.

I would recommend watching the video to judge quantities for yourself. He measures everything by eye and some of his tsps are pretty generous.

I'll be giving these a roadtest soon and will report back. Axe has already had a go but not with great success. I quite like the idea behind the method and some members on here will be pleased to see the cricket ball size of the finished bhajis.

Ingredients

2/3 medium onions
1 potato
1 tsp presoaked lentils
1 egg
1 tsp g/g paste
1 pinch salt
1 tsp methi leaves
1 tbsp mix powder (here: https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4354.0)
1 tbsp Kashmiri Masala
1 handful chopped fresh coriander
0.5 tsp dark orange food colouring
Gram flour to form very sticky batter

Slice the onions and chop the potato into matchsticks. Add all the other ingredients to the bowl. Now mix together gently do not squeeze the onions otherwise they will release their juice. Now add gram flour. Do not make your batter too runny, make sure the mix is thick. Pre-heat oil at 180 degrees celcius. Take a large handful of the mixture and gently roll into a ball (do not press hard). Place in the hot oil and cook until they rise to the surface of they oil. Once they have ,they are now pre-cooked. Drain the excess oil. Now to cook the onion bhaji reheat the oil to 180 degree celcius. Before placing in the oil gently press down the centre of the ball to allow to cook through to centre. Leave to cook for about 1-2mins now it should be ready to eat like your local Indian restaurant or take away.

How to make onion bhaji

I just watched the Dipuranja Youtube Onion Bhaji video.

http://www.youtube.com/user/dipuraja1#p/a/u/0/hFeRuAT_gJI

It was a very interesting watch and although I don't think the results from his effort looked very good, it does reinforce a couple of my thoughts from my Bhaji experiments. Firstly (and I appreciate it's only based on this one video) it would appear they dont premarinate the onions in salt and spices before they are made. I found this made the onion too soft so you end up with a very smooth ball and a sludgy middle. The idea of keeping everything very loose to maximize the internal surface areas in contact with the hot oil makes sense. Almost all BIR OB's are a bit spiky with onion jutting out everywhere, you definitely lose this with the premarinading so for me, that's out moving forwards.

The use of an egg as a binder isn't a new idea but is one I discounted a while ago in favour of standard water based batter. I'll revisit now as it might be the only way to get the onions sticky enough for a light coating of flour.

The lentils are also something I haven't tried before so I'll give them a go.

I'd never really considered it might be food colouring giving the internal colouring, I'll be buying some of that today.

Finally I can't tell you how pleased I was to see the potato going in too. That is now 4 out of 4 Indian chefs I have heard say this should be added. CA - it's time to accept the truth!

They were my best yet from a cooking method point of view, the spices need a bit of work but I think that will be the easier part.

I probably over cooked them a little on the final fry. There was a lot going on as my wife was cooking a totally separate meal and I was balancing cooking the Madras, poppadums and Naan. I'm kicking myself for not getting the thermometer out to check the oil temp, I think it must have been around the 160 - 170 mark as they darkened very quickly. The second batch I kept more of an eye on.

I'd say cooking method - 90%
Taste - 75%

I have lots of ideas for moving forwards though and I feel I'm on a good track now.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3Z5Vbr8lsjAcUQiThL7a7w?authkey=Gv1sRgCMzHr-q7y5XQPA&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/uXl54o3HBk5aDY-Lr7znsg?authkey=Gv1sRgCMzHr-q7y5XQPA&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/KUTfPtnkpohQdAQUDS-DIw?authkey=Gv1sRgCMzHr-q7y5XQPA&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/fS97YN6LiRpyFd5wj8sjmA?authkey=Gv1sRgCMzHr-q7y5XQPA&feat=directlink

I think we were both aware that turmeric is a big contributor to the yellowness of the bhaji. My point is that if you add spices to a bowl, throw in some sliced onion and gram flour, mix a batter and deep fry for 5 minutes, it doesnt matter how much turmeric you add into the batter, the onions still remain white. It seems to take a long time to get the onions yellow all the way through to the middle. I imagine it would be near impossible if you slice them 5mm thick.

Yesterday were yellow through which was a first for me. Hardly surprising though given the 48 hour marinating period.