Some nice little Indian onion fritter -- piaz pakore.

All recipes copyright Anna Vaught.

To make very nice pakore you've also got to be prepared to eat straight from the pan!

Pakore are fritters made with a batter of chick pea flour, which is dense, slighty sweet and nutty. You can make them with any number of vegetables -- in Bengal, if you're lucky, you might find one made with potato skins: fantastic. Here is the recipe for onion fritters that I like to follow at home. And the picture above? If you go to www.flick'r com you will find pictures of old Calcutta like this one from Subodhev. This is a snack seller and his wares, I can vouch, will be excellent. Here are some more evocative pictures from this photographer, while I'm at it. Calcutta (oops: Kolkata). I love it.

There's some leeway for ingredients here. Have confidence. Yoghurt is not always added; you could just make a simple batter with sunflower or rapeseed oil and the gram flour.

1 big pot of plain yoghurt. I like to use thick Greek yoghurt. It won't be so good with low fat.
Gram flour. That's chick pea flour, which may also be labelled 'besan'. You can get this easily in Asian markets but also in health food stores. Probably about three cups.
2 chopped medium onions
1 tablespoon each of turmeric, ground coriander, ground cumin and a chopped red or green chilli. Salt and pepper to grind over at the end.

Into a bowl go the yoghurt and the spices, mix and then --you'll see I've not specified an exact amount above-- add the gram flour, little by little, until you have a thick paste. That is, something your mixing spoon can stand up in, but not something which is unworkable. Add a little milk to loosen, if necessary. Now, mix in the chopped onion and check that all is properly amalgamated.

Now, have a shallow frying pan ready with a nice film of sunflower in it. Get it really hot (not smoking!) and fry tablespoons of the mixture until golden. You could also, if you prefer, deep fry the pakore or even oven bake them. When they are done, put to one side on kitchen paper and sprinkle with salt and pepper when you transfer them to a plate.

You may have seen these in a ball shape or called onion bhajis. I prefer them like this -- as crisp, flat little morsels. The trick is not to put in too much to fry at any one time because they will be just too dense. Keep them small. Oh -- and they do not need to be neat. Part of the appeal is the little bits of caramelised onion that protrude from the batter which encases them. You can serve them with a dip. Read on...

Fill a small bowl with Greek yoghurt, plus salt and pepper and a tablespoon of drained, prepared tamarind. Or easier still, but the ready-prepared tamarind paste. I like to add a few good sprinklings of 'chaat' powder to this, too. There are several wonderful kinds of this about: it's a tart, hot and deeply savoury powder that you spinkle on both sweet and savoury snack foods. My favourite is the one made for 'bhelpuri', which is a great snack food that, one day, you will eat on the beach of Mumbai at twilight. It's addictive.

These fritters are also nice with plain old tomato kitchen, a salsa and, I might add, cold beer. But eat quickly because they begin to lose their crispness pretty fast if you don't get going quickly. Maybe make them in batches, eating them crisp and hot from the stove?