Bhajia

This is a recipe for Week 5 of our Indian cooking class - these bhajia are best cooked and eaten straight away.  I kept mine until the next day, but they had lost their crispiness by then (but were still yummy!)

Ingredients:
1 onion
1 or 2 big leaves silver beet
15 Tbsp channa flour (keep some extra flour handy in case you need to add more)
1 green chilli (optional)
½ tsp chilli powder
1 tsp coriander powder
½ tsp garam masala
½ tsp salt (or to taste)
4-5 Tbsp water (or more as required)
1-2 cups oil for frying

Method:
1. Slice onion lengthwise thin and fine - the thinner you slice them, the crispier the bhajia will become.
2. Wash spinach and take the leaves off the stalk and chop coarse (no stalk) into long strips (roll up and cut thin, basically)
3. Chop the green chilli very finely.
4. Put the onion, spinach, chilli, and all dry spices in a mixing bowl.
5. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl.
6. Gradually add the sifted flour into the onion mixture, rubbing it in with your fingers until firm and sticky, add water as required (because onions and spinach tend to leave their own water) and mix well.
7. Heat plenty of oil in a deep pan, but do not let it get too hot.
8. With your fingers, put small dollops (no bigger than 2.5cm/1") of the mixture into the oil to fry - just a few at a time.
9. Fry them slowly until crisp and golden on the outside, and cooked through in the centre - about 3-4 minutes.  If the oil is too hot, they will be raw and gooey inside.
10. Drain in a sieve placed over a bowl and then serve hot with tomato ketchup or mint chutney.