Thursday, January 7, 2016

Gobi manchurian

Meaning : Cauliflower florets dipped in flour mixture, deep fried and soaked in tangy sweet sauce.

'Indian Chinese' fusion food is popular in fast food restaurants in Chennai.  This is a recipe my younger brother has been asking me for a long time. I used to make this in our parent's house before marriage (using whatever ingredient we have in hand, as in our small town, finding all ingredients was not possible at that time). But my brother likes it very much. (Earlier , I had substituted tamarind extract for soy sauce...OMG...my only aim was to bring out the closest taste then) .
After marriage, Indo Chinese foods became easily available for me via restaurants  :)
Hubby and myself love this Manchurian very much while eating out. The buffets in Indian restaurants like Mirchi , carry this as appetizer. Nowadays, we host many parties around November and December. So I look for making something that I have not posted in my blog as well as requested by our friends. So this time I made this Gobi manchurian and we were so glad to see our friends liking this.

Try my 'user friendly' version of Gobi manchurian and tell me how you like it.


Gobi manchurian
Steps involved:
Cut the cauliflower into small florets.

Add in salted boiling water for 1 minute.

Drain water.

Prepare the masala.

Add the masala and mix well. (we can keep refrigerated up to 24 hours for convenience).

Cauliflower coated with masala.

Deep fry till crispy

take them out of oil and keep on paper towels.

Chop ginger and garlic to tiny pieces.

Saute ginger garlic, then capsicum.

After adding soy sauce, tomato sauce . See my method below for this step.

Add deep fried cauliflower almost before serving.

saute well

Garnish with chopped spring onion.


Vegetable biriyani, gobi manchurian, vegetable kuruma, ice cream , onion raitha, cranberry jelly, peach cobbler.

Ingredients:
Cauliflower - 1 (small)
water - to cook the cauliflower
salt - 1/2 tsp
Frying masala:
All purpose flour - 4 tbsp
rice flour - 2 tbsp
corn starch - 2 tbsp
salt - 1 tsp
black pepper powder - 1 tsp
dark soy sauce - 1 tbsp
red food color - 1/10 tsp (optional)
Oil for deep frying
For the sauce:
ginger - 1 inch
garlic - 5 cloves
green bellpepper - 1
scallion / spring onion - 1 small bunch
cilantro - few
dark soy sauce - 2 tbsp
salt - to taste
finely chopped green chili - 1
tomato sauce - 2 tbsp
corn starch  / AP flour - 2 tbsp
Sesame oil - 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp

Method:
Step 1:
Cut the cauliflower into small bite size pieces.
Bring a pot of water to boil. Add salt.
Put the cauliflower florets to the boiling water and cook for 1 minutes in high(cooked but firm).
Using a colander drain the water. Keep the florets aside.
Step 2:
Mix all the items given for deep frying in a bowl.
Food color is optional.  I won't suggest adding any food colors regularly.
Take a ziplick bag. Put together the cooked cauliflower, frying masala and shake well.
Keep it ready for deep frying.
(I keep this refrigerated up to 24 hours, as it is convenient for me during festivals).
Step 3:
Heat enough oil. Deep fry the cauliflower pieces in small batches till crispy.
Take out and keep on paper towels to drain oil.
Step 4:
In a separate wok, heat 2 tbsp sesame oil. Add minced ginger garlic.
Saute well. Then add bell pepper. Saute well.Take these out.
In the same wok, add 1 tbsp oil.
Put the AP flour or corn starch and fry in low heat till raw smell goes off.
Add 1/4 cup water, soy sauce, tomato sauce, salt. Bring to a boil.
Then add the sauteed items. Mix well.
Keep aside.
Step 5:
Almost before serving (up to 1 hour earlier or lesser), add the fried cauliflower.
Mix well with the sauce.
Garnish with finely chopped green chilies, spring onion, cilantro.

Gobi manchurian is ready !

Serving suggestion:
Serve as side dish with fried rice, briyani, roti.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Shahi tukda (double ka meetha)

Shahi tukda or Shahi tukra , otherwise known as double ka meetha is a popular Hyderabad recipe. Frankly speaking, I have never tasted it in India. But after moving to US, I could taste this yummy dessert in almost all the buffets in Indian restaurants (if they don't have gulabjamun) . The secret behind its omnipresence is due to the simplicity of this recipe. I am sure anyone can make this dessert and can definitely become the favorite guest in a potluck :) It doesn't need much basic preparation, but we have to buy and keep the ingredients ready. Most important requirements are white bread (no substitution), ghee (definitely not oil please) and for my recipe I used condensed milk to quicken the process. So I am giving out my short and sweet recipe for this shahi tukra using little ghee and condensed milk.

But the traditional recipe calls for deep frying the bread in ghee. The traditional rabdi is made by boiling whole milk for long time (to get a condensed milk consistency), but I have used readymade condensed milk.

This is my version of shahi tukra and I am sure it will be helpful when we need a 'quicker version of shahi tukda'.
Shahi Tukda (double kaa meetha) with lot of rabri

Steps involved:
Making milk sauce (rabri)

Cut the bread slices to 1.5" squares

Pan fry or deep fry the bread slices in ghee

Bring the sugar solution to one thread consistency
Dip the bread slices in sugar syrup

Arrange the sugar coated bread slices in a tray

Sugar coated fried bread slices

Shahi tukra with milk sauce (rabri)

Shahi Tukda (double kaa meetha) with lot of rabri

Ingredients:
White sandwich bread - 4 slices
ghee - 4 or 5 tbsp (to shallow fry)
Sugar - 1 cup
water - 1/4 cup
For rabdi (milk sauce):
Condensed milk - 1/2 cup
whole milk - 2 cups
almond , cashew , pistachio - handful
cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
saffron - few (optional)
sugar - 1/4 cup (to taste)
Rabdi:
Put the nuts in boiling water and let it cook for 2 minutes (till almond wrinkles). Peel the almond. Crush the nuts in a hand mortar to small pieces. keep aside.
Bring milk to boil. Let it reduce to 1 cup. Add sugar and keep cooking. Add condensed milk and stir well. Put the nuts, saffron, cardamom powder. Switch off. Keep aside. (Yellow food color is added mildly by restaurants instead of saffron).
We can prepare this rabdi a day ahead and keep refrigerated for better taste (and for our convenience too).

Method:
In a vessel, add sugar and water and bring to a boil. Continue heating till the syrup gets 1 string consistency. Take off heat.  keep this ready.
Cut and remove the crust of bread slices. Slice the bread into small squares of 1.5 inch size.
Heat 1 tbsp ghee in a tawa (frying pan). Reduce the heat to minimum and fry few pieces of bread till they get crispy.  Put the fried bread slices in sugar syrup. Dip it well and place on serving tray.
Likewise fry all the bread pieces and dip in sugar syrup.
Arrange the sugary bread slices in serving tray.
Now pour the prepared rabdi over the bread pieces. Let it soak for atleast 1 hour before serving.
Keep refrigerated.
Shahi tukda is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve chilled as dessert.

Chennai Kara Kulambu (vendakkai kara kulambu)

Okra / vendakkai  in tamarind curry. Ingredients: Okra - 150 gm (20 numbers) Onion - 1 Tomato - 1 curry leaves - 1 sprig Garlic - 1 Tamarind...