Blooming Onion Bouquet

Why not treat your beloved this valentines day with a bouquet... of fried onions?

20 minutes prep

5 minutes cook

Serves 2

Hugh Woodward

Ingredients

6 small brown onions

1 tbsp flaked sea salt

120g gram flour

60g rice flour

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

2 tbsp melted ghee

to taste hot sauce

to taste ranch

It seems unorthodox but we can guarantee it will be better received than a bunch of boring old roses that you can't eat. Your partner will love them - soft onions, spicy crunchy batter, the option to dip them in some delicious dips. These take the crispy batter of onion bhajis but use the spices you'd associate with fried chicken. The result? Pure perfection.

Method

Cut onions as shown in the video.

Whisk together the flours with the spices and gradually pour in enough cold water to make a smooth batter the consistency of single cream.

Heat a pan full of sunflower oil (roughly 2 litres) until it's 180°C.

Dip the onions in the batter (make sure they are completely coated) and carefully dip them in the oil. Deep fry until they are crispy and delicious, roughly 5 minutes.

Impale them on some wooden kebab sticks. If they are flopping down, cut a little circle of cardboard and stick that on the stick to support them.

Dress with the hot sauce and ranch dip.