blooming idiot

so for this fry test i tried to recreate the "blooming onion". i first had one of these when i lived in Ottawa, but they are apparently fairly common in the states at places like chilli's and the outback steakhouse. it basically is a large white onion, cut into segments and battered which blooms out like a flower when fried. i didn't exactly go according to plan. immediately after it came out, i figured out a way easier way to do it. sigh.
so i started with a large white onion, cut about an inch off the top and bottom and removed the skin. took a sharp knife and cut across approximately 3/4 of the way down, then again in the other direction, over and over until i had approximately 16 sections to work with. i then reached in and pulled out most of the core pieces. i placed the onion in an ice bath to help spread the petals for what was supposed to be an hour, but ended up getting distracted with having to cook food (oh, yeah, my job) and it ended up being closer to 2 hours. i think this contributed to some of the problem with the onion, as when i finally took the onion out, the last row of petals had fallen off. whoops. i dried the onion and mixed the flour. i had about a cup of flour, some cayenne, Cajun, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper and a little cumin. mixed it all together and floured the onion. i then mixed a cup of milk with an egg. dipped the flour in the milk mixture, then the flour, and repeated the process. i should have let the onion sit for at least 15 minutes in the fridge to let the batter cool, but i didn't, as i got impatient. this probably didn't help.

i then dropped the onion in the fryer from which i had removed the fryer baskets. i let it cook for approximately 5 minutes, then removed. the batter didn't really stick to the petals much, and as soon as i took it out i realised i should have just made a simple batter with all the ingredients, then dipped the whole product in that. the batter was good in itself, well seasoned, it just wasn't thick enough to give the whole thing a battery goodness i was looking for. i made a quick dill dip of mayonnaise/sour cream/dill and garlic powder to dip the petals in. that was unfortunately the best part.
all in all, it was good, but not restaurant good. i will attempt again with a different batter next time, and post the results. i give it 4 fries out of ten.