Onion Bhajis with Tamarind Chutney

Slice 500 g Brown onions as thin as you can manage, ideally on a mandoline, along the grain so the strands stay long. Long strands give the frizzled edges that make a bhaji a bhaji.

Tip the onions into a wide bowl, add 1 tsp Salt and rub it in with your hands. Leave for 15 min, then squeeze hard: the onions should be limp and sitting in their own juice. That juice is the only liquid the batter needs. Finely chop 4 tbsp Coriander and 2 Green chillies.

⚠ Tip: Do not drain the juice away. It carries the onion flavour into the batter and it is what makes the coating crisp rather than doughy.

Add 150 g Gram flour, 2 tbsp Rice flour, 1½ tsp Ajwain, 1½ tsp Kashmiri chilli powder, ½ tsp Ground turmeric and the chopped coriander and chilli. Squeeze everything together with your hand until no dry flour is left. The mix should just barely hold when you press a fistful, loose and shaggy, not a pourable batter.

⚠ Tip: If it will not hold at all, add ice-cold water a spoonful at a time, never more than a splash. A wet batter gives you heavy, oily bhajis.

Tear 100 g Tamarind pulp into a pan with 300 ml Water. Simmer for 10 min, mashing it against the side, then push it through a sieve and bin the fibre. Return the liquid with 80 g Jaggery, 1 tsp Roasted ground cumin, 1 tsp Ground ginger, 1 tsp Chilli flakes and ½ tsp Black salt. Simmer until it coats a spoon, about 10 min.

⚠ Tip: Taste at the end: chutney should hit sour first, then sweet, then a slow chilli warmth. Too sharp, more jaggery; too sweet, a squeeze of lemon.

Pour 1 l Sunflower oil into a deep, heavy pan, at least 8 cm deep, and heat over medium heat. Drop in a pinch of batter: it should fizz and rise immediately. Around 175 °C is right.

⚠ Tip: Too cool and the bhajis drink oil; too hot and they blacken outside while the onion stays raw. Hold the heat steady and fry in small batches.

Take a fistful of the mix and squeeze it into a ragged clump the size of a walnut, then flatten it slightly between your palms. Keep them rough: loose strands sticking out are the crunchy bits. Do not pack them tight.

Slide the bhajis into the oil, four or five at a time. Fry for 3 min, turning once, until deep gold and audibly crisp. Lift them out with a slotted spoon onto kitchen paper and keep warm while you fry the rest.

⚠ Tip: Keep the raw mix cold between batches; a warm mix soaks up more oil.

Scatter 1 tsp Chaat masala over the hot bhajis and serve immediately with tamarind chutney spooned over or alongside. They are at their best in the first few minutes.

⚠ Tip: Nothing revives a cold bhaji, so fry only what will be eaten. Cold, they go leathery.