Ingredients

• 2 medium sized onions finely sliced and broken apart (see photos)

• 1 mug (coffee pot) of gram/chickpea four/besan

• 1 tsp. baking powder

• *1 tsp. ginger powder

• *1/2 tsp. cinnamon powder

• *2 tsp. coriander powder

• *2 tsp. cumin powder

• *1 tsp. turmeric

• *1 tsp. fenugreek powder (powdered seeds not the leaves)

• *1 tsp. black pepper

• *1 tsp. salt

• 1-2 large fresh chillies finely chopped (adjust to your own heat levels)

• 1 tsp. garlic puree

• About 1 mug (coffee pot) of cold water (will depend on how dry the flour is to start with)

• A handful of fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped (you can even use the softer stems chopped finely)

• Oil for deep frying

Instructions

1. Into a large mixing bowl place the gram flour, spices*, baking powder and fresh coriander leaves, stir together and add the water while mixing into a very thick batter.

2. Add the onions into the mix and give it all a good stir around, leave it to one side for half an hour.

3. Using your normal method for deep frying heat the oil to a good hot temperature but not quite smoking.

4. Using a large spoon (serving spoon in my case) scoop some of the batter and onions (making sure you get a decent portion of onions and some of the batter) and drop into the oil.

5. It should start to fry and may need turning over after a couple of minutes (they will go quite dark when cooked)

6. Take out and drain on kitchen paper, then transfer to a warm plate for serving.

7. Alternatively you can allow them to cool on a wire rack and then keep in the fridge overnight to be reheated in hot oven on a baking sheet the next day. This tends to make them less crisp but does make them seem more like the ones you get at several take-aways !

8. Hints

9. Try using the same batter to fry peppers or a mix of onion and peppers