Curry Recipes Online
Curry Chat => Lets Talk Curry => Topic started by: H3av3N on February 15, 2020, 03:47 PM
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I just made a batch of these - literally finished cooking them like 5 mins ago. Kitchen still smells amazing !!!
https://curry-recipes.co.uk/recipe/onion-bhaji-recipe/
Really decent recipe for flavour. I did use 1 whole tsp of the chilli powder though ( as mine is mild so usually need a little more than what recipes ask for so you actually get a little heat from it ) and also added in 1 tsp of fennel seeds.
They taste really good. Just polished off 2 of the batch of 10 that I got out of this mixture with some homemade mint sauce !!!!
The rest will be eaten later as starters for dinner this evening - along with some samosas that I previously made and froze ( will need to cook them once thawed a little )
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Interesting. I think that the original is here (https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3898.msg35291#msg35291), but it has been mis-credited : the recipe is actually by "gazman1976 (https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?action=profile;u=10364)", not "gazman (https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?action=profile;u=3330)" who is a different member. No idea where "Omar" comes into it ...
** Phil.
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Think all the recipes on that side of the site show as from 'Omar'
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(https://i.imgur.com/KZnosFm.jpg)
Pic for reference also. Was unsure about just 2 mins and flipping, so first two I did I cooked for around 4 mins each side ( left hand side of pic )
They were cooked, but a little over I felt, so I then only cooked for the 2 mins and flipped, tested one and it was cooked through great - onions were not raw, so finished the batch at the recommended 2 mins each side. They came out well, all cooked through - and a nice light colour rather than being too dark.
Will def be making these again
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Good effort and welcome, don't forget you can freeze em rather than scoffing, i agree with you on the smell of them, unfortunately ive been banished to cooking them outside :(
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Think all the recipes on that side of the site show as from 'Omar'
That's this site as well isn't it, although with a different layout? the address is https://curry-recipes.co.uk/ rather than https://www.curry-recipes.co.uk so the same but with the www.. Odd that! And it still doesn't explain who Omar is :Clown:
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And it still doesn't explain who Omar is :Clown:
Yousef and Omar are both Arabic names. Coincidence?
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Good effort and welcome, don't forget you can freeze em rather than scoffing, i agree with you on the smell of them, unfortunately ive been banished to cooking them outside :(
mickyp.
There is a method of cooking onion bargees without deep frying
Fry the batch of onions in a pan then put in a bowl add spices gram flour and water
Heat oven then put in oven tray with a sheet of baking paper with a spoon put dollops of onion mix on tray cook for 10 mins then remove and spray with a little oil cook for another 5 mins till done healthier not so oily and almost odour free
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My last attempt at Onion Bhajis was a big disappointment. I really didn't see what all the fuss was about. I've spent a couple of hours this morning researching through this forum and linked youtubes, plus other recipes, and come up with some interesting variations on the theme. I'm going to spend some time today (raining outside) making some "starters".
I'm going to try a hybrid blend of about 4 or 5 different Bhaji recipes with some variable experimentation.
Sorry for going off topic, but I'll also be making a starter dish I made once before that went down a treat with the family. It's a lot of work but the results are very tasty. Malabar style Chicken Spring Rolls. It's a lot of work because the wrappers are individually cooked on the tawa. I guess you could use frozen Chinese spring roll wrappers but last time the fresh cooked ones were really good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoW_dpjOdnQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoW_dpjOdnQ)
Anyway, I'll report back on the Bhajis.
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Good luck, Livo
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Yep good luck Livo, the main things i have found important is stable oil temp, using a fair amount gives better temperature stability and also the consistancy of the mix, mixing all the spices including the salt and let the salt draw out the water from the onions, ...then add the gram and rice flour or whatever you are using until you have a sticky mix, golf ball size dollops in my experience has been best.
Give em all a short dip until light gold and fish them out, they will still cook for a bit, then give them all a second go to finish no more than 4 /5 at a time. good luck
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My last attempt at Onion Bhajis was a big disappointment. I really didn't see what all the fuss was about. I've spent a couple of hours this morning researching through this forum and linked youtubes, plus other recipes, and come up with some interesting variations on the theme. I'm going to spend some time today (raining outside) making some "starters".
I'm going to try a hybrid blend of about 4 or 5 different Bhaji recipes with some variable experimentation.
Sorry for going off topic, but I'll also be making a starter dish I made once before that went down a treat with the family. It's a lot of work but the results are very tasty. Malabar style Chicken Spring Rolls. It's a lot of work because the wrappers are individually cooked on the tawa. I guess you could use frozen Chinese spring roll wrappers but last time the fresh cooked ones were really good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoW_dpjOdnQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoW_dpjOdnQ)
Anyway, I'll report back on the Bhajis.
Look forward to hearing about it. I
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Seems like bhajis are a dish where approximations rule and potentially we all cook a different versions even when following the same recipe.
I don't think that that phenomenon is restricted to onion bhajis, Jon. Probably no cook uses an analytical balance, few have their thermostats or thermometers calibrated against a reference standard, and so on. Whilst science undoubtedly underlies cookery, cookery itself is an art, and one in which the chef's experience and instincts are probably a more reliable guide than any prescriptive recipe could ever be, in part because the former can take into account factors such as the local temperature, pressure and humidity
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Jon I agree with you entirely, nothing winds me up more than seeing a recipe with 1 large onion, three medium carrots, a pinch of salt and a dash of worcester sauce grrrrrrrammmmms please.
With some things though as Phil say's there are so many variables, dont try to make a large batch unless you really know what you are doing.
Also what i will say is after making some very bad ones and also might i say very good ones restaurants certainly have bad days at making them as well.
Small batches is the way to go, 12 at a time ish.
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Good effort and welcome, don't forget you can freeze em rather than scoffing, i agree with you on the smell of them, unfortunately ive been banished to cooking them outside :(
mickyp.
There is a method of cooking onion bargees without deep frying
Fry the batch of onions in a pan then put in a bowl add spices gram flour and water
Heat oven then put in oven tray with a sheet of baking paper with a spoon put dollops of onion mix on tray cook for 10 mins then remove and spray with a little oil cook for another 5 mins till done healthier not so oily and almost odour free
Hi Noble, thanks for that, personally i love the smell especially outside where the overhead hob vent outlet is, from there it wafts down the road :)
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Time got away from me after I decided to strip clean my double deap fryer and replace the used oil with fresh. I only managed 1 batch of bhajis mix along with the curry spring rolls.
The bhajis mix was a cross between this threads main recipe, Misty Ricardo's and Latif's. I also chose to produce flat bhajis (dipuraja video style) to help ensure even cooking. They were tasty. The family enjoyed them, but I again say that I'm a bit underwhelmed by them. I just don't experience any euphoria from onion bhajis. They are good but nothing amazing.
Perhaps it is cook's exposure but I didn't notice any real curry house aroma. I don't understand people being banned from cooking these indoors.
As for exactly quantified recipes, it's not really possible when dealing with this type of recipe. The moisture content of onions will vary. The flour used will vary. The size of eggs will vary. The humidity of the atmosphere will vary. The only way to do it is by feel and eye.
The Malabar style curry chicken spring rolls went down well again, although my wrappers didn't work out as well this time around. I'm going to try them in bought wrappers next time. I didn't bother with breading them either due to time.
I'll put some photos up in a little while.
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Jon I agree with you entirely, nothing winds me up more than seeing a recipe with 1 large onion, three medium carrots, a pinch of salt and a dash of worcester sauce grrrrrrrammmmms please.
With some things though as Phil say's there are so many variables, dont try to make a large batch unless you really know what you are doing.
Also what i will say is after making some very bad ones and also might i say very good ones restaurants certainly have bad days at making them as well.
Small batches is the way to go, 12 at a time ish.
I have recently been making Archana's Kitchen beetroot hummus. The recipe calls for 4 beetroot to be roasted. I used my own common sense to reduce this amount and use only 1/4 of the beetroot I had. It was obviously massively bigger than the ones used by the writer of the recipe. Had I used 4, I would have ended up with a bucket of beetroot mash with a little bit of chickpea. It would not have been beetroot hummus.
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Quote from Livo
The bhajis mix was a cross between this threads main recipe, Misty Ricardo's and Latif's. I also chose to produce flat bhajis (dipuraja video style) to help ensure even cooking. They were tasty. The family enjoyed them, but I again say that I'm a bit underwhelmed by them. I just don't experience any euphoria from onion bhajis. They are good but nothing amazing.
They look good Livo, i use Misty's recipe and find them tasty, all my family like them, if you find they lack taste you can always up the spices, next time i might grind the fennel seeds a bit as the taste of a whole seed can be dominant.
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They were good, but do you know that feeling you get when you taste something and go 'oh wow'? It just isn't there. I sort of expect these to be really tasty and morish, but they're not. They are nice and perfectly edible but to me there is just something missing. They don't have the savoury flavour hit that I seem to anticipate.
I can't really pinpoint it but to me they are just dull. Maybe a sprinkle of Chaat Masala, or some sauce will lively them up, but I just have not been able to get them to meet expectations. Maybe they just need some extra salt. I'm not sure and having never eaten a bought one, I have no baseline to compare.
Is the Misty Ricardo recipe up to par? If so I'm getting it right and so maybe I'm just expecting too much.
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Yeah Misty's are fine, i might add a couple of chopped chillies to the mix as per Latif's to give a little kick. I dont know if i am being over critical but when you see Latif put in a ts of salt in most of it goes to one place and i can't think how mixing it a bit can get it everywhere to draw the water from the onions.
In the past i have seen chefs throw the salt into the bowl so you get a spread, the same rule must apply for all the ther spices as well, if they are not mixed properly how will every bhaji be the same.
Lol maybe your family got the good ones and you got a wrong'un :)
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I ended up with 10, shared 1 with Mrs L straight out of the fryer, had 1 with dinner and then another warmed in the MW yesterday for a snack, so not a case of getting the dud. Don't get me wrong, I like them but for what's in them, I just expect them to be better than they are and feel something is missing.
The salt content, addition, distribution and timing are of some importance. More salt means more salty flavour but it also means more water will be drawn from the onions. This would require extra flour which means a more doughy mixture. Salt can easily be added at any time during the mixing but some instruction is to add it late so excess moisture isn't drawn from the onion. Distribution of salt and other spices is easy enough to get uniformity but it could be ensured by mixing with the flour before adding to the onion.
I actually noticed that my formed patties, resting on a dinner plate, became wetter and more sloppy the longer they sat waiting for their turn in the oil. The first 3 were quite dry, the next 3 a little wet and then 2 batches of 2. The last 2 were visibly wet and sticky. This didn't have any discernible effect on the cooked bhajis.
As I say, if the results I'm getting are standard then maybe it's just me expecting too much.
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I would never warm onion bhaji in a microwave oven. Pop them back in the deep fat fryer for 30 seconds or so, warm them in the halogen oven by all means, but if you put them in a microwave oven they will surely come out soggy ...
Incidentally, ajwain makes an interesting substitute for fennel.
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Only 15 seconds to remove the fridge chill Phil so not soggy. It isn't worth heating 3 litres of oil to warm 1 bhajis.
I'll give the ajwain a try. I was thinking of adding some Paprika or maybe using an All-purpose seasoning instead of plain salt. Perhaps the addition of some celery or cereal seed might work.