RECIPE: Onion Loaf

Last year a branch of Miller & Carter opened near to us and I love eating there. I'm always fond of a steak, but what makes Miller & Carter stand out for me is the accompaniments, especially the wedge salad, that I've never had anywhere outside the USA before,  and the onion loaf which I've never had ANYWHERE  else.

On Friday night we were having steaks at home, so I googled to see if there were any "fakeaway" recipes for onion loaf out there. I found several, although they all seemed to be clones of the same one, which makes industrial-strength quantities and uses pancake mix. Pancake mix? There's no way I'm letting that darken my doorstep! So I had to make my own recipe up.

The resulting dish is much lighter and crisper than the M&C version, so I didn't succeed in actually recreating the recipe, but it's also very, very delicious. You'll probably need to go out for a 10 mile run to work off the calories though!

I used a smallish onion and it made enough for 4-6 Miller & Carter sized portions or 2-3 greedy person sized ones.

You will need
1 onion
1 egg
50ml milk
1 mug full of self raising flour
seasoning
oil for deep frying

Start well in advance - peel the onion, slice into rounds about 5mm thick and push out into rings. Beat the egg and milk together and place in a wide, shallow bowl. Add the onion rings and mix well so they are all costed in the mixture. Allow to stand for at least an hour, turning the rings in the mixture from time to time so they all absorb some of it.

Heat the oven to 220 C (200 fan), 450F, gas mark 8. Line a small loaf tin with non-stick paper.
Heat the oil in a deep fat fryer (I don't have one so I used a deep wok) and while it is heating, put the flour into a large plastic bag, add about ½ teaspoon each of salt and pepper and shake well. Then lift the onion rings out of the soaking liquid and drop them into the bag. Squidge it all around (that's a technical term, you know) until the rings are coated in flour then deep fry a few rings at a time until crisp and golden, draining them on absorbent paper as you go along.

When all the onion rings are cooked, pack any you have managed to protect from being snaffled (they ARE very tempting and will draw everybody into the kitchen) loosely into the lined tin and bake for about 15 minutes until really deep golden and crispy and lightly holding together.

I think to make it more like the dish I was trying to copy, I should have cut the slices thicker, cooked them for less time before putting them in the tin, and then pressed them down to stick together. However I actually prefer my version - they came out like a Western version of onion bhajis. I might try varying the seasoning next time I make this recipe - some hot smoked paprika in place of pepper would be incredibly yummy. I can just imagine a plate full of that with some aioli to dunk the rings in.