Onion Bajji | Onion Fritters - Cooking From Heart

I was wondering if I should really post this recipe now, especially with onion prices soaring all over the country. While veggie shopping yesterday, my jaw kind of dropped seeing such bad quality onions priced so high. I thought more than two times picking up each onion and would have to be calculative in my cooking using onions. Onion is so essential for every day cooking - atleast on most days. Given the price condition, how can people from lower middle class or daily wagers afford? Sigh.

Moving on to the recipe, I made this a couple of weeks back when onions were still good and were not so highly priced. When I think of rains, the first food thought that comes to my mind is the pakodas or bajjis. Recently I posted the recipe of crispy Onion Pakoda and this was only a continuation welcoming the so-called monsoon in Bangalore. Perfectly fluffed up, crispy bajjis and a cup of coffee along with a book in hand can take anyone to the seventh heaven 🙂 As much as I hate deep frying anything, I make a few exceptions for the husband who loves deep-fried goodies. Bajji can be made with a variety of vegetables. Potato, Plaintain, Chillies, Papad, Onion, Brinjal - the list just goes on. I love Aloo Bajji - nothing like a hot plate of it for the cold weather. Onion can be a bit tricky to deal with, as the onion has to be sliced into roundels and when it is dunked into the batter, the layers might come off. A little care is all it needs to make this super yumm snack.

To make Onion Bajji

Servings: 2
Time: 20 mins
Difficulty: Medium
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What I used -

Onions, 2 medium
Besan/Gram Flour, ½ cup
Rice Flour, 1.5 tbsp
Cooking Soda, a generous pinch
Red Chilli Powder, 1 tsp
Salt, as required
Water, as required
Oil, for deep frying

How I made -

Start by cutting the onions into roundels. The slices should neither be too thick nor too thin.
In a bowl, mix besan/gram flour, rice flour, salt, cooking soda and red chilli powder. Mix well.
Add water little by little so that the batter is thick in consistency. When a slice of onion is dipped in, it should coat the onion slice properly.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a kadai for deep frying. As the oil gets hot, reduce the flame to medium.
Dip each slice of onion into the batter, letting the batter coat on all sides. Carefully wriggle out the extra batter from the onion slice and drop it into the hot oil.
Repeat the same with another two - three slices of onion, depending on the room available in the hot oil. Adding too many bajjis at the same time would drop the temperature of oil, making the bajjis go soggy.
Repeat the frying process for all the onion slices. Drain each batch onto a tissue paper after they turn golden brown.
Serve hot with tea or coffee. It can be served as an evening snack with coconut chutney too.

Note -

Rice flour has to be very fine which adds to the crispness of the bajji.
A pinch of cooking soda will give the bajji a good fluff and airiness to it.
The batter has to be thick (not too thick). If it's thin, the batter may fall off the onion and would not coat it properly.
Keep the flame on medium while frying the bajji, else the outsides would be cooked but onions can be still raw inside.
The measurements for the batter are for two medium sized onions. Make a fresh batch if the batter is not enough.