Gobi Manchurian

Dry Gobi Manchurian (Cauliflower Manchurian) is a very popular North Indian dish. The Indo Chinese version of  manchurian generally tends to have a gravy base. This is served as a starter in Indian restaurants. I love the dry version of it and attempted to make it at home on several occasions, but I was never able to deliver it with restaurant style quality. Alas, my hubby made this dish and it turned out simply amazing. Here is his recipe for a restauarnt style Gobi Manchurian.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Cauliflower - 1

For the batter:

Corn Flour - 1/2 bowl

Corn starch - 1 tsp

Rice Flour - 3 tsp

Soy sauce - 2 tsp

Salt

Green Chillies - 2

For frying:

Oil - 2 cups

For the sauce:

Oil - 5 tsp

Ginger - 1 tsp (Chopped)

Garlic - 1/2 bulb (Chopped)

Onions - 1/2

Spring Onions - 2

Salt

Soy sauce - 3 tsp

Chilly Sauce - 3 tsp

Tomato ketchup - 3 tsp

Preparation:

1. Blanch the cauliflower for 10 mins. This process takes away the rawness and at the same time, does not make the cauliflower very soft. In addition, it also removes any worms that may be hiding in there.

2. Next step is to make the batter - Mix soy sauce, water, salt and green chillies to corn flour, rice flour and corn starch mixture and make it into a thick paste.

3. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Dip the blanched cauliflower in the above paste and deep fry it until it becomes very crispy. To make a great manchurian, the fried cauliflower should be very crispy. Make sure you fry them for long to get this cruch on a low to medium flame.

4. In the meantime, start preparing the sauce. In a pan, heat oil, add ginger, garlic, onions, spring onions and salt. 

5. After the onions are cooked, add soy sauce, chilly sauce, tomato ketchup and mix it.

6. Add the fried cauliflower and toss it in the sauce.

Serve it hot as starters. It also tastes great with Chapathi - you can make a roll by stuffing the manchurian inside. It taste great!!

Egg Ambat

Konkani people love coconut. Almost any dish we make, we try to add coconut which adds a unique flavor to these dishes. Ambat is a konkani word for curry. The egg ambat which my mom makes is a tangy coconut gravy which is so flavorful that you can't seem to have enough of it. I have eaten egg curry at so many places, but this signature dish from my mom beats all. Here's a toast to this mouth watering recipe.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Egg - 7

Oil - 6 tsp

Coriander seeds - 1 tsp

Cloves - 3

Cinnamon stick - small piece

Bay leaf - 1

Black pepper - 4

Red Chilly - 4

Grated Coconut - 3/4 cup

Turmeric Powder - 0.5 tsp

Tamarind - a small piece

Onions - 1

Tomato - 1

Salt

Coriander leaves - for garnishing

Preparation:

1.) Boil 5 eggs and keep aside. Once they cool down, cut them into two pieces. We are going to use 2 raw eggs later in this dish to give a thick consistency to the curry.

2.) Heat oil in a pan, add coriander seeds, garam masala (I am using the raw spices since it gives very good flavor, but you can use ready made garam masala too if you have it too - cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaf, black pepper), red chillies and once it fries, reduce the flame and add grated coconut. 

3.) Next put turmeric powder and tamarind and grind it into a smooth paste with some water.

4.) In another pan, heat oil, fry onions, once they are translucent, add tomato and let it cook.

5.) Next add the grinded paste to the above mix, add some salt and bring it to boil until the bubbles start coming.

6.) Next add the 2 raw egg and stur continuously. This gives a very good taste to the curry and also thickens the curry.

7.) Put the boiled egg in the curry and garnish with coriander leaves.

Egg curry is ready to be served with rice or Chapathi.

White Randayi

My mom used to prepare white randayi (white coconut curry) with cucumber and ladies finger which I used to relish very much as a kid. I just loved the taste of those two vegetables when they were cooked in this rich and flavorful curry. Here's the recipe which I got from her and I hope you enjoy making it.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Cucumber - 2 (cut into big pieces)

Ladies finger - 6 (cut into medium pieces)

Salt 

Oil - 5 tsp

Coriander Seeds - 1 tsp

Fenugreek seeds - 12 seeds

Green chillies - 2

Cumin seeds - 0.5 tsp

Grated Coconut - 1 cup

Turmeric powder - 0.5 tsp

Tamarind - small piece

Rice - 2 tsp (soaked)

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 5

Red Chilly - 2

Hing - pinch

Preparation:

1.) Boil cucumber in 2cups of water. After sometime, add the ladies finger and let it boil well.

2.) Meanwhile, in a pan, heat oil, add coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, green chillies, cumin seeds, turmeric powder and tamarind and let it fry.

3.) Once the above mixture is fried, put the flame on low and add grated coconut. 

4.) Grind the above fried coconut mix into a paste with little water.

5.) Once the paste is almost done, add some soaked rice and grind it again.

6.) Mix this paste along with the boiled cucumber and let it cook well in this gravy. Let it cook till the bubbles start coming.

7.) Next add tadka to this. For tadka, heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, red chilly, hing and fenugreek seeds. Add this to the cucumber mix and stir well.

White Randayi is ready to be served with rice.