Gobi Manchurian

Gobi manchurian is a chinese dish tweaked a bit to suit the Indian palate. I love to have it tangy and hot. This along with a plate of chinese fried rice is absolutely scrumptious. When I was working at Chennai Infosys, this used to be the featured lunch menu on fridays at the food court. It would be either manchurian/plain fried rice or schezwan fried rice on the menu and I would be eagerly waiting for the lunch time :) I grabbed my share hot-hot and if there were any early bird prizes, I would have won hands down. To tell the truth, the food was not so great and people who knew abt out chennai food court would endorse. But, a tiny piece of paper with 'chinese food' written on it is enough to amuse me and I also believe even the baddest cook can manage to cook it reasonably well. Incidentally, paper was also invented in China. Oh, I don't eat paper by the way. However, I should confess that I have never tasted authentic chinese food and people who have tried it say it is nowhere close to what we get in Indian restaurants. I am still contented with the Indo-chinese food and do not even want to visit a chinese restaurant. Ingredients:
Cauliflower - 1 cup
Rice flour,corn flour,maida - 1:1:1 (1.5 table spoon of each aprrox)
Capsicum - 1
Onion - 1
Oil to fry
salt to taste
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Orange color - 2 pinch (optional)
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Tomato ketchup - 1 tablespoon
Soya sauce - 2 tsp
Spring onions to garnish.

Method:
1. Break the cauliflower into medium size florets. Clean them by immersing in salted water for 5 min. I use lukewarm water but I have heard people telling it is better to use cold water as against some people telling hot water. So i choose to be moderate and use lukewarm. Someone please enlighten me as to which is the best. I always eat my caulifower with 100% belief that it's worm-free. I don't want to be paranoid here and lose the charm.
2. Make a batter with all the three flour,water,chilli powder,color,salt and ginger garlic paste.The consistency should be such that it sticks to the florets coating thoroughly. Deep fry in hot oil.
3. Cut the onion and capsicum into cubes.
4. Heat oil, fry the onions and capsicums till tender. Add the fried florets, tomato ketchup and soya sauce. Mix well and garnish with spring onions. Serve immediately with chinese fried rice.
I feel this is good to go with the rice and not much as a starter.


Click here for the chinese fried rice recipe. This time I tried a small variation. Reduced the amount of soya sauce to 1.5 tsp and added a tsp of white pepper powder. It just tasted as heavenly as before. One other tip is while frying veg for fried rice, do it over high flame quickly to get it crisp.
This is off to the kids lunch event as I find it good enough to fascinate the kids.

http://cooking4allseasons.blogspot.com/2009/03/monthly-mingle-31-kids-lunches.html http://whatsforlunchhoney.blogspot.com/2006/04/my-monthly-mingle.html