My Mom makes the best pakodas. Pakodas are deep fried flour and spice coated onions. All south Indians know what a pakoda is! Yesterday, my husband wanted me to do some since it was cold outside. I wanted to try a fusion between a pakoda and bajji (did I mention my mom makes the best pakodas and bajjis and everything..) and thus was born my "onion pakoji"...
My cooking recipes are always by taste. I don't measure much even though I have tortured my mom for exact measurements when I was newly married. Sorry, mom!
I used a medium sized red onion and cut it into thin slices. Take equal measures of rice flour and gram flour (both of them are available in Indian grocery stores)and mix them with the onion slices. Add salt and red chilli powder to this mix. One trick my mom always does to yield crispy pakodas is to put around a tbsp of hot oil into this mix. I did the same as well. Now, if you are making pakodas, you sprinkle water. And if you are doing bajji, you can be more generous with water.
Since mine is a fusion, I used around 1/4 cup water so that I had a good coating over the onions. When the oil gets hot in the pan, try to spread the onion mixture with the hands. Then, once the bubbles slow down in the oil, you can take them out and enjoy!
