Hi Sandy and welcome you certainly sound crazy enough to fit in here amongst us curry crazed nutters! ;D

Spam Naan. There's a thought!  ;D

<----[shudders]

Ohh, did i forget to mention... the predominant flavour in this naga masala powder is.. . . . . you guessed it,
FENNEL  ;D

Interesting topic Frank. I was about to mention that perhaps you might ought to look at the naga masala, so that clears that up.

I don't think i've ever come across fennel powder but I do understand the sweetness in the flavour and as they are actually a fruit and not a seed, it kinda makes sense too.

I only have Aniseed in my spice cupboard these days as I prefer it to fennel. I'm sure I could use this but it might be a little overpowering, though the subtle hint of heat you get from it might work well.

Cheers I didn't want big ones as it was more for finger food...

...I think my batter was too heavy hence the cakeyness, can't wait for try 2

Perhaps you could convince them to allow you one of those mini fryers that could be tucked away neatly.

The cakeyness can be due to several things. Making small finger finger food sized portions is certainly of of them as you need a fair bit of batter to hold them together.

Overall though, I found the most important thing to get right was the ratio of onion to batter and the batter's consistency. You need a very thick and sticky batter hardly what I would call a batter, more like a paste. Then you need a good deal of onion but not too much that you can't form a ball.

Wetting your hands before forming the bhaji is also key. This allows you to form the bhaji uniformly and to stop your hands becoming caked in the so called batter. The water from your hands will mix with the batter on the outside to form a wetter solution whilst the centre remains still quite dry.

It's probably the last method you might think of to make a haji, but it is the only way to reach bhaji nirvana

...general banther.

Isn't that a quadruped as ridden by Tusken Raiders on Tatooine?