onion bhaji/pakora recipe - help needed

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I have tried many recipes for these but they are never quite right. The lastest one which I have made this evening is made with chick pea flour, salt, water, some pakora masala mix from a company called MDH who, I was told by an Indian friend, make pretty authentic spice mixes. Then I added some more hot chili powder (again from an Asian store). I fried it as intructions said and it tastes quite nice but not fabulous. I have to say, it tastes quite like decent shop bought bhajis but I have had loads nice in Indian restaurants. Theirs seems lighter, a little more greasy and fresher. Any ideas, esp from Indian mumsnetters I guess, on how to get that 'restaurant taste'?

Many TIA

bump....watching with interest!

bumping you and also watching with interest

Are you frying them in ghee?

I make pakoras occasionally. I'll post the recipe in a bit

Spinach Pakoras

4oz/110g gram flour
20z/55g spinach finely chopped
1 small onion finely chopped
3oz/90ml cold water
Pinch of salt
½ tsp chilli powder
1 green chilli finely chopped
½ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp garam masala
Approx 500lm of sunflower oil

Sieve gram flour into a mixing bowl. Add all remaining ingredients (except the oil) and mix well.

Heat oil and carefully add one teaspoon of the mixture at a time. After a few seconds the pieces should float to the top - they should take 4 or 5 minutes to cook. Remove and drain on kitchen roll.

Obviously you can vary the amount or combination of spices.

My punjabi friend used to make them using white sliced bread as the filling. Thats in the realms of deep fried mars bars but yum. Cooked potato and peas are good in pakora.

I do onions, peas and green chillis

if you subsitute a 1/4-1/3 of the gram flour for self raising flour it makes them lighter and crispier.

I make one very similar to mercy's but mine has very small cubed potatoes, and chopped coriander in it too.

You really don't need a bought masala. Some people jsut make it with gram flour salt, and chilli.

There are so many possibilities with bhajia. YOu can make the basic batter and use it to coat chillis, thin slices of aubergines or potatoes.

One of my favourites is betata vada. Balls of potato mashed with green chilli and LOTS of garlic dipped in batter and deep fried.

I'm hungry now....

Someone posted this link on here recently for oven-baked onion bhajis - they are brilliant, taste authentic and much healthier than deep fried ones obviously.

Baked bhajis

Really, give these a go as they are fantastic and very easy.

Try adding a pinch of baking powder.

Hi hope the following tips help:

1. Use vegetable or corn or rapeseed oil to deep fry.
2. The oil has to be at the right temperature. If not hot enough, bhajis turn out oily and stodgy. If too hot, they turn crispy on the outside but are not cooked through. Before dropping bhajis in, drop in a few drops of the batter. If the oil is smoking and your bhajis start turning reddish right away, then the oil is too hot. If the drops sink below the surface and then immediately rise up again, your oil is ready. This is the temperature that needs to be maintained throughout. So you may need to keep increasing/reducing the heat. Remember when you drop one lot of bhajis into the oil, they absorb heat and cool the oil down, so immediately increase the gasmark.
3. Your batter has to be the right consistency. Just slightly thinner than cake batter I think would be the right description. Should be thick enough to coat the vegetables, but still a bit runny. The quality of the chickpea flour (besan) affects the outcome as well but I just use whatever I can get.
4. Can add cumin seeds, chopped green chillis and coriander to the batter for extra flavour.
5. Check the spice mix you have, if it does not already have salt, add salt to the batter.
6. Finally after frying if the bhajis taste bland, sprinkle chaat masala (another off the shelf kind of spice mix) over them liberally.

Norkybutnice recipe, does anyone know what can use instead of buckwheat flour or chickpea flour? is normal flour ok?

I had a flatmate who made fab pakoras with potato, spinach, onion and loads of fresh coriander.