The kids have been asking for onion rings for a while now. Usually I'd just bring them to Burger King, and get some burgers and onion rings on the side. Not this time though, due to the place we are staying now has no Burger King outlet, and the nearest would be across the bridge, so I decided to go homemade.
I found a few recipes using flour batter, and looked more for the classic breadcrumb style as well, because you have to admit, nothing beats the classic crunch of onion rings. It sounded really simple, like those homemade chicken fingers, get the marination/batter, dip and dip and maybe dip some more, deep fry and you are done.
And I was about to find out the truth, it was not that simple!!
Ok firstly, lets go through the dippings. In one bowl prepare onions cut into rings (duh!), I used 3 onions, and boy, were they really a lot. In one bowl, prepare 1.5 cups of bread crumbs. In the second bowl, about 1 cup of flour, some salt, black pepper, ground cumin, oregano, paprika and chilli powder. In the second bowl is the mixture of 2 eggs and 1 cup of buttermilk, whisked together.
In the next step, get an assistant, it can be your kid, husband, or anyone. Arrange them out nicely, because this is the last step that you get to see your workspace all clean.
See, I got my little eager mc-beaver minion to help me. It gets really messy, I must warn you. But no, I am not showing the after picture, too dreadful for an OCD like me.
The first style of onion rings - classic breadcrumb crunch - you dip the onion rings into the flour mixture, then into the egg mixture, and lastly into the breadcrumbs, making sure you coat nicely at every step, and you can lay them out till you are ready to fry. Deep fry for 3-4 minutes and you are done.
Halfway making the breadcrumbs type, I kept asking myself, why did I sign-up for this, I could have just bought frozen ones and fried for the kids to munch on. Then I reminded myself, yes, I am always up for new culinary challenges. That is when it got too tiring, breadcrumbs were running out, and I decided to mix the flour with the egg mixture and voila, you have got the flour batter! True Story.
The kid, however, was having tonnes of fun, dipping and re-dipping, hiding onion rings in the flour/batter, it was like treasure hunt for me.
For the second type, just mix the flour mixture into the egg batter, get it nicely incorporated, add water if its too thick. And mix in all the onion rings. Separate them as you fry them, again for 3-4 minutes. When I got my hands into the batter, I had this familiar feeling which I later realised the batter and aroma was almost like pakoda aka Indian vegetable fritters, except we'd have gram dhal and more spices into the batter. So effectively I was making Western version of pakodas!
The final verdict is both were super-yummy! The breadcrumbs version slightly more oily, and it soaked the oil much more than the other one. Also I wished I had put in more spices and have it pakoda style, which is what I am going to do next time.
The rest of the dinner yesterday was a huge platter of bacon pizza, focaccia, cheesy garlic bread, and the onion rings. Don't be afraid to pile on vegetables on your pizza, no one really notices that, and eat away!
The ideal title for the dinner would be western pakodas and rotiyan (I hear you LOL out there!).
Too many carbs you say? Jillian Michaels is gonna make sure I burn it all off the next day! Bon appetit!
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