I'm trying to find a good onion baji recipe. I had the most excellent ones recently in an Indian restaurant in Carlisle.

Jo you will have to give a description of what it was like in the place you had it, as with most food/cooking every place it different (not to mention that the 'Bahji' as its known in the UK doesn't exist in India, the nearest thing being Pakora)

There is a site search on this site (amongst the red buttons "search") if you click on that and type "pakora" I'm sure it will point you in the right direction.

:-)

Thanks, yes that did it, lots of pakora recipes. The ones I had were large, a bit bigger than golf balls and were light and airy. The onion held together by the mix and sticking out from them.

Anyway I'll give it a try.

Jo

Hi Jo

I have editted the names of all the pakoras on this site, hopefully making them easier to understand! Do bear in mind that every household/restaurant makes slightly different type of Pakoras. As only you knows how your local does it, be inventive till you get it right, or try asking them how they did it.

Mamta

The Bahji's around here tend to be rather large, dense and heavy.. it appears to be a thick batter mix using Gram flour and a lot of yoghurt (plus turmeric, garlic, chilli, fenugreek)

I have a fantastic recipe for onion bhajias, which never fail to go down a storm with my family. If you would like it, I would be happy to share it with you. If Mamta allows it!!

I don't think I've ever eaten onion bhajias in restaurants which have the correct balance of spices. They always taste like one spice in them is just too overpowering and you taste nothing else. Eg. the spice ajwain (or lovage seeds) is a very powerful spice and if you use this in bhajias, you tend to taste nothing else but ajwain!! I don't think it has a place in bhajias at all

BTW there is no such thing as bhajis in India, the correct term is bhajia. A bhaji is a dry vegetable curry dish.

Hello kennyliza

I love to receive readers recipes. This site is just a collecting vessel for good recipes, nothing more!

I will try it and if it comes out well, I will be very happy to add it to my site. I agree with you, most restaurant bhajias/pakoras are overspiced, overfried (to deep brown), cold and often soggy. The best pakoras are freshly fried to crisp and only with a hint of spices. So, let's have your onion bhaji recipe. If you have a digital picture, please include a JPG immage and send it to me via the Contact link at the top of the page. I am collecting all pictures, and taking many of my own, to go on line in not too distant future.

Mamta

I bought a pakora mix the other week... it was on the shelf in the supermarket and I thought I'd try it just to see what it would come out like...

cough splutter.. erm.. not very good...

so the week after I bought some gram flour and added,about 1 tsp of baking powder, garlic powder, fenugreek leaves, a little cinnamon, chilli powder, the contents of about 3 green cardamons (only the seeds from the middle) ground up, salt and pepper.. I then added water to make a thin batter mix, added a load of onion rings (finely sliced) and deep fried them (adding them with two big spoons getting plenty of onions and batter)..

they worked out a lot better than the mix from the week before..

Needs a little adjusting with the spices and maybe wants some milk or yoghurt.. possibly make it thicker.. but it was a lot like the ones you get in takeaways around here...(even more so the day after when I reheated the ones that were left in the oven)

Hello Steven

Making your own pakora mix is so simple, it is not worth wasting money on ready mixes. What you added is part of garam masala (cardamoms, cinnamom), often added to pakoras. Fenugreek leaves are also added to pakoras (and many, many curries, Indian breads and dals, to enhance flavour. So, without realising it, you got all the best ingredients in it :-)!

The batter should be coating consistency, so it clings to whatever you are making pakoras out of. It shouldn't be too thick or you get rather 'dumpy' pakoras and can't taste the vegetables inside.

You can make pakoras with paneer cheese and ordinary bread slices too, very nice! In fact, I should write down bread pakora recipe on site. I will do it later, when I come back from th gym!

Pakoras are crisper when lightly fried once, then re-fried just before serving. This, and baking powder in it, as the reason why restaurant pakoras are often quite dark brownish in colour. However, they do absorb more oil this way, so I tend to fry them only once, until crisp, and then serve immediately.

Some people use this batter to make fish, chicken and meat pakoras too.

Mamta

Yes I only fried mine once but those that were left were re-heated in the oven the day after and had taken on a more "takeaway" taste and texture..

hi im from glasgow and i have been a chef working mostly in italian resturants but i was brought up on our local indian and chinese takeaways. my wife is italian and likes veg pakora and im wanting to make it in house but not like the takeaways do it if its veg pakora it must have veg in it and you should be able to see the veg not a puree mix ? is that right anyway i dont have garam flour just yet maybee i buy tomorrow but is it possible to use other flours ?

im thinking of using turnip (sweed) witch will be pureed and onion chillies peas and maybee some brocolli but im not sure on that yet or spinach i will mix together the veg with the mashed turnip(sweed) and some egg to bind it and make a batter with flour water and a mix blend of spices then i will fry off and serve to our friends who are visiting on fri night from italy if you could give me some advice on this recipy i would be very happy but i will try it b4 i make for my friends

hi i was wondering whats is pakora is it something just cooked in a batter or more spesific?

Hello John, welcome to this site!

Home made bhajia/pakoras are nothing like the restaurant ones. They are mostly made from all sorts of vegetables, deep fried in spiced besan (gram flour) batter and eaten straight away. You can make them from thin slices of potatoes, onions, courgettes, aubergines, carrots, bread squares, all kinds of leaves like spinach, methi, tender leaves of vine, pumpkin flowers, chicken pieces, paneer cheese, fish and anything else that can be cooked in batter. I have many recipes on this site, search for pakora or bhajia (not bhaji, which means vegetable). Besan is the main flour used in India. You can make it with a few types ground lentils, but they are not the usual pakoras. You will see that I have recipes for pakoras where individual vegetable is battered and for pakoras where all are mixed together and with besan. Both taste good but very different. Try them all. Your friends may like this recipe;Pakoras.

As to other flours, I am sure you can use tempura type of batter, but they will not be pakoras then. Pureed vegetables are not usually made into pakoras, but you may find that they work for you. You do not need egg when using besan, that itself is a vegetarian binding agent.

If you have trouble finding any ingredients locally, the Spice of India link on each recipe on this site takes you to a good supplier of fresh Indian ingredients.

Do tell us how you got on, John the Chef.

Mamta

ok i made the pakora 2 times the first one was the best i used peas, diced red onion ,diced peppers, fresh chilli pepper ,roughly choped parsly diced courgets and potato and turnip

this was not a recipe i found on your site i just used what was in my house @ the time

first cooked the turnip and potato then mashed them added all the other ingrediants with some soft fresh bread that i had diecd small and added some flour to the mix it was very soft and just handeble without falling apart i diped them in a stanard batter that i made and added some mix spices

the end product was good the inside texture was very delacate melt in the mouth stuff only fualt was the batter the flavour was nice but the next time i would prefare a crisper batter to complament the soft centre

btw i found this site from google i just done a serch for pakora and found the forum there

Hello John

It just goes to show that you do not need exact recipes for everything and can make good stuff based on what you have at the time.

Did you use plain flour or Besan/chickpea flour? Besan is better than plain flour for Indian style pakoras. You can also add a pinch of baking powder to your batter and cook it on medium heat, rather than fast, in very hot oil. that will make pakoras crisper.

Mamta

i used half s/r flour half plain flour thats all i had in the house at the time and yes u can add any of my recipes thats not a problem

btw i like your site and might come here regular

You are more then welcome to visit us regularly John :-)

Mamta

What a lovely site and lots of good ideas from everyone..The dipping sauce which everyone describes is quite unlike the one we used to get when we were working in Saudi Arabia....It was more like a sort of Chick Pea curry sauce..which was also served with the stuffed Parathas...Does anyone have a similar recipe for this dipping sauce ? With thanks.

Chickpea dipping sauce? sounds like houmous (or a version of it)

Hello Tasmanian Devil

It could be Chickpea Chutney or a variation of it. Perhaps they just served them with a curry sauce. can you describe it a bit better?

Hi all...No, it definately wasn't hommus, I guess the best way to describe it was like a chick pea curry sauce, with not many chick peas, but the texture of the gravy was not thin nor too thick..I wonder what they might have added to the "gravy" to give it the texture ?..Here on this island, whilst it is fairly large, Shops which sell Asian/African/Indian goods are few and far between, but a good find for me lately, was a source of flour made from "hard" wheat, which makes lovely breads. Thanks for all the answers. John from Tasmania

It wasn't Tamarind sauce by any chance? It is thick, like a custard, dark brown, often eaten with Spicy Chickpea snack. It is tangy and sweet at the same time. It can be lighter brown in colour, if the tamarind is of light brown variety.

Don't give up yet, we will get there in the end ;-)!

Mamta

Loved your Bhajias "Mixed Vegetable Pakora or Bhajis - 3 Fritters (Mamta's)". You can taste each vegetable individually. I made some vine leaf and pumpkin flower pakoras, never knew they could be so lovely. Thanks

Malik

was it made totally with chickpeas or could it have been something like a lentil curry with chickpeas in it ?

Steve

Steve, I think you have hit it dead on...The lentils were so well cooked that they were barely perceptible except in taste.. I will try it out in the next few days..I miss many of those lovely meals we used to have in Saudi..We were friends with one Indian couple who were vegetarians, and my wife Joan says if I could cook meals like they could, she would become a vegetarian !

Thanks again. John

I am lost, but not yet giving up! In India, people often crush a few of the chickpeas after the curry is cooked, to make the gravy thicker. Is that a possibility? Next time you make chickpeas, try saving a few and crush the rest with a potato masher or sometging similar. See if that works for you. Do get back to us, if it does :-)!

Mamta

your onion bhaji's sound brilliant. please can you share your receipe with me. gladis

Hello gladys

I presume you mean Onion pakora when you say onion Bhaji?

See;

Onion bhaji

Onion bhajia

Mamta

Oops! hope this works better:

Onion bhaji

Onion bhaji

Can I make onion bhaji today. Keep them in the fridge and reheat in the oven on Monday

Yes. Slightly undercook them. Cool completely. Keep in the freezer in a sealed bag. Heat oven to around 180c. Place bhajies on a foil lined tray and heat for 15-20 minutes. Serve immediately. Over heating or repeated heating them will make them chewy.