Onion Rings

Method

1. Peel 1 large sweet onion, trim the top and root, and cut it across into rounds a good 1 cm thick. Push the rounds apart into single rings and keep the wide outer ones for frying; save the small centres for another use.
2. Whisk 50 g plain flour with 15 g cornflour, 0.5 tsp baking powder, 0.25 tsp paprika and 0.25 tsp fine salt in a bowl. Pour in 100 ml cold lager and whisk just until smooth — it should coat a spoon like single cream. Rest the batter 10 minutes while the oil heats; do not overwork it or the coating turns tough.
3. Pour the oil into a deep, heavy pan to a depth of about 7 cm, leaving at least 8 cm of clear space at the top, and heat to 180C on a thermometer. A cube of bread should brown in about 45 seconds.