Onion Rings

A lunch platter for one person at a famous American casual dining franchise in Makati costs an average of P350.00. That consists of about 3 pcs. chicken fingers, some fries and onion rings. Drinks excluded.

For under P300.00, I cooked a lunch that fed 6 people including me, and there was some left over, too, for dinner. The lunch consisted of crispy fried chicken, real potato fries and of course onion rings. And 1.5 Liter Coca-Cola.

Frying chicken and potatoes is no big deal so I'll just share with you my "tricks" in making calamari-like onion rings. Naaalala ko pa, elementary pa ako, nung bagong bukas pa ang Shakeys sa Makati Cinema Square, pabalik-balik kami ng mga pinsan ko para bumili ng onion rings. It was new to us and it tasted good! But the real reason we bought ng paulit-ulit is not really because of we like the onion rings but because, Shakey's, on its launch, gave gift certificates FOR EVERY PURCHASE MADE, and balloons, too! An order of onion rings was P20.00 and we get P50.00 worh of gift cert which we could use to buy a regular-sized manager's choice pizza at 50% discount. Clever diba?

Here's the recipe:

Onion Rings

For the batter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 pc lagre egg
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup water or milk
ground pepper or paprika

Combine all ingredients to form a batter. Batter should be thick enough to coat the smooth onion. Test 1 or 2 rings for consistency and adjust liquid and flour accordingly.

4 pcs medium white onions
Japanese bread crumbs for the breading
Oil for frying. Lots of it.

Coat onion rings first with the batter ONE OR TWO AT A TIME, then transfer to a platter of Japanese bread crumbs. Deep fry in vegetable oil. Make sure not to crowd the pan so the temperature of the oil will not drop to avoid sagging and to achieve real longer-lasting crispness!
When rings turn golden brown, transfer to a plate lined with kitchen towel to drain excess oil.

Onion rings, eventhough it's deep-fried is not actually oily, my face is.