As my reader, you must be aware of my love for Asian food. Here's another recipe that is an ubiquitous Chinese dish that will never lose its charm. Eat this one by itself or with a side of Manchurian. Add cooked chicken or only vegetables. This dish can be prepared in many forms. All forms lead to the words - Yummy in my Tummy! :-)

No prep needed. Serves 4.

Ingredients:
1. Eggs, 2, whisked
2. Oil
3.  Steamed white rice, 2 cups
4. Soya sauce, to taste. You can use oyster sauce as an alternative.
5. Red onion, 1/2, finely chopped
6. Spring onion, 4, chopped
7. Broccoli, 5-6 florets, chopped
8. Green pepper (capsicum), 1, finely chopped
9. 1/2 cup appx frozen veg (chopped carrot, corn kernels, green peas)
10. Vinegar, a couple of tablespoons
11. Red chili and garlic sauce about 1.5 tbsp

Instructions:
1. Cook rice with 2 tsp salt and oil. You can also use leftover cooled rice.
2. Set aside and let it cool.
3. Heat a wok.
4. Add oil then red onion.
5. Let it brown. This will take appx 8 mins.
6. Throw in the whisked eggs and mix quickly. This will make something like scrambled eggs in the wok.
7. Then add soya sauce.
8. Add broccoli and other vegetables (green pepper and frozen veg).
9. Cook for about 5 mins.
10. Add vinegar and chili-garlic sauce.
11. Throw in the spring onions and mix.
12. Add the rice and mix again.
13. Check the flavours and add more soya sauce and vinegar as per taste.

Serve warm by itself. This will be a wholesome hearty meal.

Tips:
1. You can add fresh bean sprouts at the end for a nice crunch.
2. Apparently using sesame oil imparts more flavour to the rice (but I have not tried this myself)
3. Cooking the eggs, onion, and vegetables separately and assembling them together at the end with rice is supposedly a better method of cooking this recipe.

I am in love with Chinese food. There was a phase when I raved over Chinese dishes but then the passion gradually died. I have had my ebbs and tides with this cuisine. But the fever is back again.

As a kid, my mom would make Chowmein noodles at home and it was my favorite. Then my sister had her own recipe for it and I loved that even more. But I did not have my own recipe. And I did not have an authentic recipe. So, I asked my Chinese friends how they make their noodles. The reply would be: add vegetables, noodles, and soya sauce. I would think, really? Is that all? How come their noodles are so delicious? They must be forgetting to tell me the secret ingredient that makes the difference. But then I spoke to my co-worker R about her recipe and also came across this blog, and thought maybe that is all. Let's try and see. So, I relit the fire in my kitchen. I decided I would go by the book and as I was directed - use only the essential ingredients. Less is more.


Ingredients:
1. Bean sporuts, 50 gram or less
2. Carrot, green pepper, cabbage - finely shredded
3. Mushrooms, sliced (optional)
4. Spring onion, chopped.
5. Olive oil
6. Soya sauce
7. Red chili sauce
8. Noodles, blanched.

Directions:
1. Heat a wok.
2. Add olive oil
3. Throw in the vegetables including the bean sprouts and spring onion
4. Cook for a couple of minutes.
5. Add in soya sauce and chili sauce.
6. Mix well and cook again.
7. Add in the noodles.
8. Cover and let simmer on low heat until the flavours blend into the noodles.

Serve warm.

The results were quite pleasing. I know now that it's not the number of ingredients but the quality of ingredients that make a dish taste good. Just like this one did. The trick is to add authentic vegetables. For example, use spring onion instead of red onions, don't forget bean sprouts and so on :) Little things make a difference. Just like how in life they do....

Chinese cooking is a balance of opposites...sweet & sour, hot & cold, plain & spicy - the principles of Taoism. India and China share a history. Out of the main types of Chinese cooking (which are Guangzhou, Sichuan, Beijing & Shanghai) Sichuan cooking is the one that is heavily influenced by Indian spices & Indian cooking techniques brought back by Buddhist traders. Manchurian is one such fusion dish that causes an eruption in the taste buds. Sweet, sour, spicy, sticky, and crunchy...Mmmm.....Baby Corn Manchurian!!
Bring it on!!

Ingredients:
1. 1 can baby corn
2. 2 tablespoons tomato sauce
3. 1.5 tablespoon ginger, miced
4. 1.5 tablespoon, garlic minced.
5. 3 tablespoons soy sauce
6. 1 tablespoon vinegar
7. 1 tablespoon cornflour
8. 3 tablespoons flour (maida)
9. Salt to taste
10. Oil
11. Red chili paste, 1/2 tablespoon

Instructions:
For the sauce:
1. Heat oil in a pan
2. Saute onions, ginger and garlic.
3. When the onions turn golden brown, add tomato sauce and cook until the sauce leaves the oil.
4. Add vinegar, red chili sauce, and soy sauce.

For the fritters:
1. In a bowl, add maida and cornflour and 2-3 tablespoons water to form a paste.
2. Add 1/2 tablespoon each of ginger and garlic.
3. Mix the baby corn in this paste and add salt.
4. Heat oil in a wok.
5. Fry to form fritters.
6. Transfer the fritters to the sauce.
7. Mix well.

Serve hot as an appetizer or as a side dish with rice.

Note: You can also make manchurian with cauliflower.

Ingredients
1. 2 cups of pressed tofu
2. 2 tbspn of tomato paste
3. 2 tbspn of black bean sauce
4. 2 tbspn of soy sauce
5. 1 small onion, diced
6. finely chopped ginger and garlic
7. olive oil
8. 3/4 cup chicken broth
9. 1 tbspn red chili paste

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a non stick pan.
2. Add the diced onion, ginger, and garlic. Stir till onion turns soft.
3. Add tomato sauce, black bean sauce, and soy to it.
4. Cook for 5 mins.
5. Add chicken broth
6. Cook until the gravy is thick and mixed well
7. Add tofu pieces and cook for another 10 mins.

Serve hot with white rice.

Ingredients:
Steam Fried noodles
2 tablespoon black bean sauce
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon red chili sauce
salt to taste
Vegetables - broccolis, green pepper, carrots, 1 small onion diced.
Olive oil
Vinegar
Soya sauce

Instructions
Boil the noodles in warm water until soft.
Drain the water and keep the noodles aside.
Cut vegetables and keep aside.
Warm oil in a saucepan.
Add minced garlic and ginger in the hot oil and mix.
Add the diced onion and vegetables to the oil and mix until the onion softens.
Add chili sauce, black bean sauce, vinegar, soya sauce and mix well.
Add the noodles and mix.
Leave it covered on low flame for about 10-15min until the vegetables cook.

Serve hot!

Indo-Chinese is my favorite. Playing around with traditional and non tradition ingredients is fun. I love Indo-Chinese dishes, it is easy to cook and tastes simply superb. Gobi Manchurian falls into this category. It serves as an appetizer and also a side dish. These kinds of dishes are found only in Indian restaurants.

No preparation required.

Serves 6.

Ingredients:
1 big Gobhi (Cauliflower)
3/4 cup Flour (Maida)
1 tbsp Corn Flour
Salt to taste (about 2 tsp)
2 Chopped green chili
11/2 tbsp Garlic Paste
11/2 tbsp Ginger Paste
1 cup finely Chopped Onions
Finely Chopped Coriander Leaves
2 tbsp Soya Sauce
2-3 tbsp Tomato paste
2 tbsp Oil
1/2 tbsp red chili pate

Directions:

1. For the fritters:
   
1. Make a paste of maida, corn flour and salt using water.
   
2. Take a tsp. of ginger and garlic paste, add it to the paste.
3. Dip the Gobi (cauliflower) florets in the paste and deep fry till golden brown. Keep aside.
2. For the sauce:
1. Heat oil in another pan and add the left ginger & garlic paste, red chili paste, chopped onions and green chili to it.
   
2. Now mix soy sauce and tomato paste to it.
3. Add the fried Gobi to the sauce and mix well. Garnish it with coriander leaves. Serve the gobi manchurian hot.

I am sending this over to the JFI Cauliflower event.
http://www.paajaka.com/2009/02/announcing-jfi-cauliflower.html