Onion bhajis with coriander and mint chutney

Method

1. Slice the onions thinly and put them in a mixing bowl. Finely chop the chilli, discarding the stalks and white membrane if you want to keep the heat to a minimum. I generally keep them in as I love a decent chilli hit in my bhajis. Chop some coriander, you want about a tablespoon to add to the bhaji mix and you can use the stalks and leaves for this recipe. The stalks of coriander have bags of flavour, so I use them a lot in my cooking. Pop the chilli and coriander into the bowl with the onions and add the spices. Mix everything well, cover and set aside for about twenty minutes.

2. Put all the chutney ingredients into a blender and blitz until you have a smooth sauce like consistency. This will only take minutes. Again, remove the seeds and the white membrane from the chilli if you do not want a particularly spicy chutney. If you want to adapt this recipe to make it vegan, use a little water or some soy yogurt instead of the dairy yoghurt.

3. After the onion mix has had about twenty minutes to rest, add the gram flour and stir it in well. The onions will by now have released a bit of water, so combine the mixture well before judging how much more liquid you need to add. The batter should be quite thick, so add a little water at a time until you have the right consistency. You want all the ingredients to be well combined and coated in batter, but the batter shouldn’t be runny. I find that about 60ml of water is the most I need to use to get a good batter.

4. Heat enough sunflower oil to deep fry the bhaji to 180 Celsius. You need to get the temperature right or the batter will spread out when you add the bhaji and you will end up with a pan full of messy, oily onions. I use my trusty probe thermometer to check the temperature, it is one of the kitchen tools I would not be without. Once the oil is at 180 Celsius, use two tablespoons to form a nice sized bhaji and lower it into the oil. Take care not to overcrowd the pan, I usually fry these in a wok and cook them no more than three or four at a time.

5. After a few minutes in the oil, use a slotted spoon to turn the bhaji over. Keep an eye on them, you may need to turn them over a few times until they are crisp and golden brown all over. When they are lovely and golden, remove them from the pan and drain them on some kitchen towel to remove any excess oil. You can keep your bhajis warm in an oven as you finish cooking the rest. This recipe will easily give you ten to twelve individual bhajis.

6. Once they are all cooked, serve them immediately with the green chutney.