Batter Fried

• The blooming onion's classic recipe makes for a slightly spicy and visually interesting onion ring dish. The batter is most often a beer batter made from flour, cornstarch and beer, which you can also substitute with water. The classic recipe includes paprika, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Other spices like cayenne pepper, cumin, oregano, thyme and sage can also be added to the batter according to personal taste. You can also use typical ethnic cuisine spices like turmeric, chili powder or coriander to experiment with different flavor profiles like a curry, Mexican or Asian blooming onion.

Baked

• The baked version of the blooming onion uses bread crumbs instead of flour batter to coat the onion. The batter substitute is made up of bread crumbs, paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper. As with the traditional batter, you can add other spices to taste or use flavored bread crumbs or panko. The onion is first dipped into egg or egg whites so that the bread crumb mixture will adhere to the onion.

Onion

• Blooming onions are made with large sweet onions. The Vidalia, Walla Walla and Texas Sweet onion are all good choices to use for the dish. Red onions and Spanish onions are an acceptable substitute for the sweet, speciality varieties. You can also experiment using shallots, which have a mellow sweet onion and garlic taste.

Preparation

• Because a blooming onion is basically just a flower shaped onion, the cut of the onion is the most important part of the recipe. First cut a hole in the middle of the onion and then slice half inch wedges 3/4 of the way down all the way around the onion. As the layers separate, the onion will look like a blooming flower. Dip the whole thing in batter and deep fry or dip in egg and bread crumbs and bake. The onion is usually served with dipping sauce in the middle where the hole was cut.