First and foremost let me be fiercely profuse in my apologies for just disappearing. I spent 3 weeks running around Europe having a mad time. First two weeks with my girlfriends in Ireland, and then with the husband and another couple in Germany. It was a sabbatical of enormous proportions.

The super special girls’ trip.

Our farm in Mahabaleshwar is well on its way to being planted. The rains were particularly vicious this year. We lost many trees and shrubs. But well, that’s the ebb and flow of life, and we are looking forward to some organic, homegrown fruits and vegetables.

I had my best friend over in Mahabaleshwar, and we kindled up the wood-fired oven and made ourselves some pizza. I make the dough using fresh yeast. When it is nice and plumply risen, I roll out small rounds and give it an initial dance into the fire. Once it’s mildly pre-cooked, I add the pizza sauce, cheese and toppings and send it for another jig. As a result, I get thin – and I mean ultra thin pizzas, with a crunchy crisp bite.

Nishi and me.

This time around, the wood was still wet from the rains. The fire would not catch, the hearth would not heat and the pizzas would just not pre-cook. After a few exasperated tries (the dough was rising, and would have spoilt) I picked up the rolled out pizza dough and flipped it straight into the flames.

I heard a collective gasp from my helpers. One started dancing on his feet, saying “ It will burn, it will burn”. I just grinned and took a tong and flipped it over to let it cook the other side. All this took just a few seconds. And out came the most fantastic precooked pizza. It had blown up like a pita bread, but the results were sooooo good. Crunchy, with oozing melting cheese which stuck to our palates and teeth.

beer battered onion rings

What I am trying to say here is cooking is an art – agreed, but it is also instinct. When I give cooking classes, I always tell my students, don’t think too much. If you want to substitute an ingredient with another do it. If you want to increase the heat do it. There is no right or wrong in cooking. Some person somewhere must have had jam with goat’s cheese and then started the trend of serving preserves with cheese. To my taste buds – nothing tastes better!

beer battered onion rings with a sprinkling of chaat masala

Enjoy the beer battered onion rings. These are my favourite fried snack, and my kids love them.

Darned easy to make. Just a little planning, as the onions have to marinate at least for two hours before they can be fried.

I make a quick fix, cheat sauce with these onion rings. They taste way better than, some store-bought sauce (though mine is a mix of store bought sauces :P) The fried ring, with the tart hot sauce gives it an amazing balance. Of course, you can substitute it with any other sauce of your choice. But do give my recipe a fair chance too.

beer battered onion rings and a chilled beer

Baking powder is a crucial ingredient in this recipe, so don’t try to substitute or do away with it. It is what gives the onion rings the crisp and crunchy texture when mixed with a beer in the batter.

My friend and me feasted on them, in Mahabaleshwar. Hope you like them too – PS: they go really well with chilled beer!!!

Beer Battered Onion Rings

Print Recipe

My favourite snack, darned easy to make. It will be an instant hit amongst your friends.

• CourseAppetizer
• CuisineAmerican, Fusion

Servings	Prep Time
4 people	15 minutes

Cook Time	Passive Time
15 minutes	2 hours

Servings Prep Time 4 people 15 minutes

Cook Time Passive Time 15 minutes 2 hours

Beer Battered Onion Rings Print Recipe My favourite snack, darned easy to make. It will be an instant hit amongst your friends. CourseAppetizer CuisineAmerican, Fusion Servings Prep Time 4 people 15 minutes Cook Time Passive Time 15 minutes 2 hours Servings Prep Time 4 people 15 minutes Cook Time Passive Time 15 minutes 2 hours

Ingredients

For the onion rings

• 2 large onions peeled and diced into 1 cm thick rings
• 2 cups beer - larger appx 1 pint
• 2 teaspoons vinegar
• 1 tspn salt
• 1 tspn Black Pepper crushed

For the batter

• 3/4 cup corn starch or corn flour
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour (maida)
• 1 plus cup beer appx 1/2 pint
• 1 tspn Baking Powder
• 1 tspn salt
• 1 tspn Red chilly flakes crushed

other stuff

• Milk for frying
• 2 tbspn Chaat masala
• deep pan for frying
• tongs for frying
• kitchen towel for drying the onion rings before frying

Quick Cheat Sauce

• 2 tbspn Ketchup
• 1 tbspn hot sauce Use any. Even Tobassco is good.
• 1/2 tspn soya sauce
• 1 tspn garlic finely minced
• 1 tspn Black Pepper

Servings: people

Instructions

To make the marinade

1. Mix all the ingredients of the marinade in a vessel.
2. Pull out all the rings of onions from the diced rounds. Each onion should be separated. The ring should be whole, without any cuts.
3. Submerge the rings into the beer marinade and refrigerate for minimum 2 hours, and a maximum of 4 hours.

To make the batter

1. Add all ingredients of the batter in a bowl
2. The batter should be thick and should fall with a plop when dropped from a spoon.
3. Give the batter a good mix with a whisk. It should have no lumps.
4. Make this batter just before you need to fry the onion rings.

For frying the rings

1. Pour oil into the non stick and heat well on slow to medium flame. It should not start smoking. If it does, let it cool down before popping in the onion rings.
2. Wipe each ring, using a kitchen towel or a good quality paper napkin. Each ring should be completely dry.
3. Dip one ring at a time, into the batter. Give it a quick flick to take off extra batter.
4. Drop the ring into the hot oil.
5. Work quickly and put in as many onions as you can, till the pan fills up.
6. After appx 30 seconds (or when the batter looks well fried) turn the rings, using the tong, so that the other side can fry.
7. Pick out the fried rings with the tong and place on a paper napkin to drain off excess oil. You can press it down slightly (not too hard) with another towel to drain off more oil.
8. Sprinkle some chaat masala and serve hot, with the cheat sauce.

For the sauce

1. Add all ingredients together and mix well.

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