Broccoli Manchurian

I tried broccoli manchurian just like how I make Cauliflower Manchurian. They turned out good too.

Ingredients :

For dumpling :

• Broccoli Florets
• Cornflour - 1tbsp
• Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
• Chilli Sauce - 1/tbsp
• Ginger paste - 1/2 tbsp
• Water - 1/2 cup

For Sauce :

• Soya sauce - 1 tbsp
• Chilli paste -1 tsp
• Green chillies chopped - 1-2
• Pepper powder - 1 tbsp
• Chopped garlic - 1 tbsp
• Chopped ginger - 1 or 2 tbsp
• Chopped Spring onions -1/2 cup
• Salt - to taste
• Ajinomoto ( optional )
• oil ( sesame preferred ) - 4 tbsp
• Vegetable stock ( for gravy ) - 1 cup
• Cornflour. - 1tbsp

Directions to make the dumplings :

• Mix cornflour in water, add pepper powder, chilli sauce and ginger paste to the mixture.
• No need to add salt as you will have salt in the sauce, however if you wish you can add very little salt to this mixture.
• Dip the broccoli florets into this mixture so that they are coated from all the sides and deep fry them.
• Remove them from oil when they change color to slight reddish brown.

Directions to make sauce :

• In a wok, add sesame oil ( or vegetable oil ), heat it, and add finely chopped ginger, finely chopped garlic.
• Add chopped spring onions, green chillies, black pepper powder, soy sauce, chilli paste, ajinomoto, very little salt.
• The sauce is now ready for manchurian.

To make manchurian :

• Add the broccoli dumplings to the sauce and toss them.
• The sauce should be just enough to coat the dumplings on all the sides .
• Garnish with finely chopped spring onions.

Vegetable Tofu Stir Fry

Tofu is extremely nutritious which has many health benefits and is a very good source of protein for the vegetarians.  It is low in fat, calories and cholesterol. Isn't that amazing for people who watch their weight.
Tofu by itself is bland, but if cooked with various other ingredients and flavors , it is a treat to have.
So here is one of the many different ways to make a tofu appetizer.

Ingredients:

• Extra Firm Tofu - 1 packet
• Olive Oil - 1 tbsp
• Chopped Green and Red Bell Pepper - 1/4 cup
• Chopped Spring Onions - 1/4 cup
• Garlic Paste - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Pepper - to taste
• Soy Sauce - to taste
• Chinese Chili Sauce - to taste
• Stir Fry Sauce ( Any Flavour ) - 2 tbsp
• Sesame Seeds - 1 tbsp

Directions:

• Drain water from the tofu.
• Wrap it with a paper towel and let is stand for 5-6 minutes so that all the liquid is soaked up.
• Cut it into bite size cubes.
• Heat oil in a pan, add tofu pieces and stir fry till golden brown on all the sides.
• Push the tofu on one side of the pan , and add garlic paste in the oil and stir it for a few seconds.
• Add chopped vegetables ( bell peppers and spring onions ) and toss them along with tofu.
• Add soy sauce, chili sauce, stir fry sauce, little salt and pepper and sesame seeds. Mix well and cook for a couple of minutes till the vegetables are half cooked. Let the veggies remain crunchy. No need to cook till soft.

Variation: 

• You can make the same recipe without any veggies as well. Or You could add more veggies of your choice like onions, broccoli, carrots, snow peas etc .
• You can add plain stir fry tofu to salads or pasta or chinese fried rice or chinese noodles.

Enjoy  !!  :)

Chinese Fried Rice

This is the Indo-Chinese fried rice. The actual fried rice in authentic chinese restaurants would be totally different to the fried rice we make in India.
We add Indian flavours to the chinese dishes to suit our taste.
Here's the recipe for the same :

Ingredients:

• Rice - 1 cup
• Water or Vegetable Broth - 2 cups
• Ginger - 1 tsp
• Garlic - 1 tsp
• Vegetables - 1 1/2 ( Carrots, Beans, Cabbage, Bell Peppers )
• Green Onions - 1 -2 springs
• Egg - 1 ( optional ) You can avoid it if you do not eat egg.
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Salt -to taste
• Black Pepper Powder - to taste
• Soy Sauce - 1-2 tbsp
• White vinegar - 1 tsp
• Chilli Sauce - to taste

Directions :

• Cook rice with water or broth . Let it cool. Keep aside.
• In a wide wok , heat oil and saute very finely chopped garlic and ginger for 1 minute.
• Add all the vegetables and saute them for a couple of minutes. Do not cook them completely. We need to semi cook the veggies. They are good crunchy.
• In a separate small pan, add the beaten egg and scramble it. Cook till done.
• Mix the scrambled egg with the veggies in the wok.
• Add the cooked rice and very little salt. Mix well.
• Add soy souce, vinegar and chilli sauce. Keep stirring for a couple of minutes till all the veggies are well incorporated with the rice.
• Garnish with Chopped spring onions ( green onions ) and pepper powder.

Note: Be careful with salt because soy sauce, vinegar and chilli sauce also contain salt.

Sweet Corn Soup

This creamy sweet corn soup is an excellent Indo-Chinese dish. A hot bowl of this soup makes a wonderful starter for the dinner on a cold day.

Ingredients:

• Sweet Corn - 2 cups ( or Cream Style Corn - 1 can )
• Oil - 1 tbsp
• Green Onions - 2
• Grated Ginger - 1 tsp
• Minced Garlic - 1 tsp
• Finely Chopped Vegetables - 1/2 cup ( carrots, beans, celery, cabbage )
• Black Pepper - to taste
• Water or Vegetable stock - 1/2 cup ( adjust accordingly )
• Corn Starch - 2 tsp ( Mixed with a little water )
• Salt - to taste
• Lemon Juice - 1/2 tsp

Directions:

• Chop all the vegetables very finely and keep aside.
• Boil the corn in around 1 cup of water till the corns are soft.
• Set aside 3-4 tbsp of corn kernels for garnishing later, grind the remaining corns into a smooth paste and strain.
• You can avoid the above 2 steps if you use cream style corn can. This makes a very creamy soup. But if you do not have the cream style corn, you can boil , grind and strain like mentioned above.
• Heat oil in a pot or a soup pan, sizzle ginger and garlic.
• Add all the chopped vegetables and saute for a couple of minutes.
• Add the strained corn paste or the can of cream style corn into the pot and mix well.
• Add vegetable stock and bring it to boil. The quantity of stock depends on how thick you want your soup to be.
• Add the corn starch mixture, salt and cook. Do not overcook the vegetables, we need it to be crunchy.
• Garnish with chopped green onions, boiled sweet corn kernels, black pepper and lemon juice.
• Serve hot !!

Gobhi Manchurian - Dry and Gravy

Gobhi manchurian can be made dry as well as with gravy.

Dry gobhi manchurian is good if had as appetizer and the gravy is goes well with the hakka noodles or fried rice.

Ingredients :

For dumpling :

• Cauliflower Florets
• Cornflour - 1tbsp
• Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
• Chilli Sauce - 1/tbsp
• Ginger paste - 1/2 tbsp
• Water - 1/2 cup

For Sauce :

• Soya sauce - 1 tbsp
• Chilli paste -1 tsp
• Green chillies chopped - 1-2
• Pepper powder - 1 tbsp
• Chopped garlic - 1 tbsp
• Chopped ginger - 1 or 2 tbsp
• Chopped Spring onions -1/2 cup
• Salt - to taste
• Ajinomoto*
• oil ( sesame preferred ) - 4 tbsp
• Vegetable stock ( for gravy ) - 1 cup
• Cornflour. - 1tbsp

Directions to make gobhi dumplings :

• Mix cornflour in water, add pepper powder, chilli sauce and ginger paste to the mixture.
• No need to add salt as you will have salt in the sauce, however if you wish you can add very little salt to this mixture.
• Dip the couliflower florets into this mixture so that they are coated from all the sides and deep fry them.
• Remove them from oil when they change color to slight reddish brown.

Directions to make sauce :

• In a wok, add sesame oil ( or vegetable oil ), heat it, and add finely chopped ginger, finely chopped garlic.
• Add chopped spring onions, green chillies, black pepper powder, soy sauce, chilli paste, ajinomoto, very little salt.
• The sauce is now ready for dry manchurian.

To make dry manchurian :

• Add the gobhi dumplings to the sauce and toss them.
• The sauce should be just enough to coat the dumplings on all the sides, and its ready .

To make gravy manchurian :

• To the sauce mentioned above, add some vegetable stock.
• Add some more soy sauce and some more salt.
• Add some cornflour in little water and make a paste.
• Add this paste of cornflour to the sauce . This will thicken the sauce for gravy.
• Add the gobhi dumplings to this gravy and your gravy gobhi manchurian is ready.
• Garnish with chopped spring onions.

Vegetable Manchurian - Dry and Gravy

Veg manchurian is one of my fav.... I can never go to a chinese restaurant and not order manchurian.

So just wanted to share my recipe with you all.. check it out :

Ingredients :

For dumpling :

Finely chopped Vegetables like :

Carrots

Cabbage

cauliflower

beans

( or some more vegetables u like , say bell pepper, celery )

Black Pepper powder - 1tbsp
Cornflour - 1tbsp
Chopped chillies - to taste
Chopped ginger - 1tbsp

Chopped spring onions -1/2 cup

Soya souce - 1 tbsp

Chilli paste - 1 tsp

Ajinomoto*
salt - to taste

Egg - 1

For Sauce :

Soya sauce - 1 tbsp
Chilli paste -1 tsp
Green chillies chopped - 1-2
Pepper powder - 1 tbsp
Chopped garlic - 1 tbsp
Chopped ginger - 1 or 2 tbsp
Chopped onions -1/2 cup

Salt - to taste

Ajinomoto*
oil ( sesame preferred ) - 4 tbsp
Vegetable stock
Cornflour. - 1tbsp

Directions to make dumplings :

• Grate all the vegetables and mix them in a mixing bowl
• Now queeze the water out of the vegetables and save this water which can be used as vegetable stock for the gravy later.
• To the grated vegetables, add salt, ajinomoto, black pepper powder, grated ginger, soy souce, chilli paste, spring onions ,cornflour, and one egg.
• Mash all these ingredients together. Egg helps the mixture to bind together but that is totally optional. Cornflour is a binding agent too. 
• Make small dumplings out of this mixture.
• Deep fry these dumplings till they turn golden brown in color.
• Dumplings are ready.

Directions to make sauce :

• In a wok, add sesame oil ( or vegetable oil ), heat it, and add finely chopped ginger, finely chopped garlic.
• Add chopped onions, green chillies, black pepper powder, soy sauce, chilli paste, ajinomoto, very little salt, spring onions.
• The sauce is now ready for dry manchurian.

To make dry manchurian...

• Add the vegetable dumplings to the sauce.
• The sauce should be just enough to coat the dumplings on all the sides, and its ready ...

To make gravy manchurian ...

• To the sauce mentioned above, add some vegetable stock which we had kept aside in the begining.
• Add some more soy souce and some more salt.
• Add some cornflour in little water and make a paste.
• Add this paste of cornflour to the sauce . This will thicken the sauce for gravy.
• Add the vegetable dumplings to this gravy and your gravy manchurian is ready.

Tip : Dry Manchurian is good for appetizer.

Gravy Manchurian is good with Hakka Noodles or Fried Rice.

Variation :

You can make Gobhi Manchurian in a similar way. The sauce preparation would remain same. Check out the recipe to make cauliflower florets dumplings.

* Try to avoid ajinomoto as it is said to be " not good for health "

Enjoy !! :)

Vegetable Hakka Noodles

Chinese Hakka noodles when made in India is little different from the chinese style.

In India we add our local flavours to it like ginger ,garlic, pepper to suit our taste buds...
So here is the recipe for Indian -Chinese Hakka Noodles :

Ingredients :

Vegetarian Hakka noodle packet - 1
( there are many other flavours available in market like .. egg noodle, shrimp noodle etc - pick your fav.. )
Chopped ginger - 1 tsp
Chopped garlic - 1 tsp
Thinly sliced carrots - 1/2 cup
Thinly sliced bell pepper - 1/2 cup
Thinly sliced cabbage - 1/2 cup
Broccoli - 1/2 cup
chopped Spring onions - 1/2 cup
Black pepper powder - 1 tsp
Ajinomoto* ( optional )
Salt - to taste
Soy sauce - 1 tsp
Vinegar - 1tsp
Stir Fry Sauce - 2 tbsp
oil - 4-5 tbsp


Directions :

• Cook the noodles in boiling water till its tender , say 4-5 minutes.
• Drain water and keep it aside in a plate and add 1 tsp oil to it so that they would not stick to each other.
• Now in a wok, take 4 tsp oil and add ginger, garlic, carrots, bell peppers, broccoli, cabbage, green beans ( or any other vegetable you like, like corn or mushroom, etc) and saute them on high till they are half cooked.
• Now add chili sauce ( any brand avail. in market ), soy sauce, vinegar, spring onions. Add some stir fry sauce and toss all the veggies well.
• Add the boiled noodles.
• You can add aginomoto* if yor prefer.
• Add salt to taste.
• Mix them all well till the vegetables are blended well with the noodles, say for 5-8 minutes and then turn off the flame.
• sprinkle black pepper powder depending on how spicy you prefer.

Tip * Try to avoid ajinomoto as it is said to be " not good for health" . Especially pregnant women.

Enjoy !! :)