Mr. Hawthorne Makes Onion Rings.

 

 Mr. Hawthorne has been working on his fried onion rings for a while now and I have to say,

he's got it down.  Rosie has had the enviable position of being the taste-tester and I can tell you these onion rings rank right up there with the best of 'em.

 Serve with Rosie's Pig Shack sauce/Boar and Castle sauce and you're good to go.

There are three steps before the rings go into the hot peanut oil.
First, there's a buttermilk bath.
Second, there's a flour shakeshakeshake.
Third, there's a wet batter made with the buttermilk left over from the bath.

Here are the step-by-steps:

Slice an onion into 1/4" - 3/8" rings and cover with buttermilk.  This will take at least a cup of buttermilk.
Let soak for about thirty minutes.

For the wet batter on the right:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp togarashi seasoning (optional)

Mix all dry ingredients together until well-combined.
The togarashi seasoning is optional.  It's a spice blend of red chile, black and white sesame seeds, nori (seaweed), poppyseed, and orange and lemon zest.  I get mine from Amazon.

1/4 grated Parmesan cheese

Stir in 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese into the dry mixture.  Mr. Hawthorne uses the Kraft stuff in the green can.

1 cup + buttermilk from the onion bath

Stir in enough buttermilk until you have a pancake-like batter.  Start with a cup of the buttermilk.  You'll probably need a few tablespoons more.

      

Drain onion rings and coat in flour.

Shake off excess flour.

Place flour-coated rings into wet batter.  Let excess batter drain off.

Here's my fry station with rings in the back, then flour, then batter, then oil:

In a heavy-duty deep pan, heat 3 or so inches of peanut oil to 350° - 360°.
Drop batter-coated onion rings into hot oil, one at a time, without crowding the pan.

 
Fry 3-4 rings at a time.  Any more lowers the temperature of the oil and you'll get greasy rings, not crisp. 
And here's a tip from Mr. Hawthorne:  As you continue dipping the floured rings into the batter, you might need to thin the batter out with a bit more buttermilk.  You don't want the wet batter to get too thick.

Turn rings when golden brown.

 

Total fry time is 4-5 minutes.

 

Drain on rack.

Serve with Rosie's Pig Shack sauce.

Crunchy, crusty exterior. 
Oniony interior.

Enjoy!