Onion Rings

I have to get my once-a-month greasy food cravings satiated some way –so I made onion rings a couple days ago. They’re also pretty straightforward to do. One simply dips rings of raw onion into a thin –what could be called pancake– batter, coats that with breadcrumbs and then deep-fries.

Ingredients

• 1 large onions (preferrably the “sweet” variety), cut into ~1 cm rings
• 1-2 cups dry breadcrumbs –just blitz up whatever leftover bread you have around
• 1 quart deep-frying fat, such as peanut oil, lard, etc.
• seasoned salt (recipe provided below) ### Batter Ingredients
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1.5 cups milk

Directions

• Whisk together the egg and milk, in a bowl.
• In a larger bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking powder.
• Dredge the raw onion rings in this flour, salt and baking powder mixture, tap away the excess, and set the rings aside.
• Add the eggy-milk to the dry ingredients and bring it together into a thin batter –it should drip fairly quickly off a fork. If it’s too thin add more flour and if too thick add some more milk.
• Arrange the breadcrumbs in a large shallow dish (e.g. a baking sheet).
• Dip and lightly coat each onion ring in the batter and then gently toss in the breadcrumbs.
• Next, heat your fat/oil in a deep saucepan over medium heat until (if you have a fat thermometer, it’s ~325 F/~160 C) or it begins to be visibly moving (I’ve deep-fried so many times I can tell by looking). Alternatively: use a deep-fryer.
• Fry the onion rings in batches until golden brown (~2-3 minutes).
• Season with the seasoned salt, if using, and serve hot. Enjoy. :)

Seasoned Salt

For me (and for onion rings) I like to make and use a seasoned salt with the following.

• 3 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon celery seed
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon ground cayenne pepper (optional)

You can vary the spice proportions to your tastes or use entirely different spices altogether. Really, what you decide to flavour salt with is up to you.