ఉల్లిపాయి పకోడీ (Ullipaayi pakodi)- Onion Fritters

Serves: Two as a snack. Preparation time: 1 hour including preparing ingredients to the final product.

Ingredients:
1 heaped cup of fine sliced onions
1 cup Chickpea flour (Garbanzo flour, Gram flour, Besan, Senaga pindi)
1/4 cup Rice flour
Green chillies, finely sliced- to taste
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder to taste
Curry leaves- 5 big leaves chopped fine
1 shallow tsp Garam masala powder
1 pinch Cumin seeds (Jheera, Jilakara)
Asafoetida to taste (Heeng, Inguva)
1 big pinch of Turmeric (Haldi, Pasupu)
1 shallow tsp Ginger-garlic paste
Oil to fry

Method:

In a bowl, sift together the Gram flour, Rice flour, Asafoetida, Garam masala, turmeric and cumin seeds along with 2 tsps of oil. Knead well for even absorption of oil into flour mixture. Set aside.
In another bowl, mix onions, green chillies, curry leaves, ginger-garlic paste and salt. Wait for thirty seconds, salt makes water run out of the onions. Add red chilli powder. Just before you start preparing this bowl, place a kadhai/wok of oil for heating.

Then fold in the previous bowl's contents (the mixed flours) into this bowl and knead well. Add upto half a tablespoon of water if you feel the need. Our pakoda dough is done, the oil too should be medium hot by now. Drop a grain-sized amount of dough into the oil to test it, if it sinks & rises up foaming, our oil is ready.

Drop small dollops of pakoda dough into the kadhai. Stir once in a while to fry evenly. When they are almost done, remove them onto a plate lined with blotting paper. They continue to cook & brown even after they're removed from the oil, hence they'll be perfectly done after they are out.
Serve with tomato ketchup or any chutney of your choice. They are absolutely yummy even eaten without any dips.

Precautions/Warnings:

Make sure oil is heated by the time the pakoda dough is done. (Pakodas turn out soggy if the chickpea flour soaks for too long while waiting for the oil to heat.) 

Trivia:

"Ullipai phokoda" according to Tittu, my favourite snack, how I fretted when I wasn't allowed to eat it for 3 months on a jaundice diet when I was ten years old.  

I love making "Kadi Pakoda" with these pakodis, a kind of 'Majjiga pulusu' . Alas this dish lies outside our purview for now, otherwise I would have converted these pakodis into awesome delicious Kadi Pakoda!!!