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!!!
- 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
- 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
- Milk for frying
- 2 tbspn Chaat masala
- deep pan for frying
- tongs for frying
- kitchen towel for drying the onion rings before frying
- 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
- Mix all the ingredients of the marinade in a vessel.
- Pull out all the rings of onions from the diced rounds. Each onion should be separated. The ring should be whole, without any cuts.
- Submerge the rings into the beer marinade and refrigerate for minimum 2 hours, and a maximum of 4 hours.
- Add all ingredients of the batter in a bowl
- The batter should be thick and should fall with a plop when dropped from a spoon.
- Give the batter a good mix with a whisk. It should have no lumps.
- Make this batter just before you need to fry the onion rings.
- Add all ingredients together and mix well.