Two Cultures and Two Kinds of Dumplings

Veg Chinese Manchurian

Veg Manchurian, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

Now before I give the recipe there is one thing that I would like to tell you all. This Manchurian is a total indianised version of the real Chinese dish. I am sure no one in China has ever eaten this unless they have come to one of the indian metropoles and visited a road-side chinese stall . These chinese stalls (at least the ones I have seen in Pune) have really fantastic names like Kung Fu Chinese , Wild Dragon Chinese or something like Great China Darbar. Now why a chinese eatery has to be called a Darbar is beyond me. To add to the authentic feel of the eatery the owner of the joint hires all chinky eyed waiters who resemble the chinese but are probably from Assam or Mizoram come to the big cities in search of work. But the fact remains that most of these joints serve great tasting food. It is spicy and can be ordered with as much chilly as you like.

And hereI have tried to capture all those flavours. I made this for a lunch get- together which 7 of us have once every week . Its a pot-luck affair where all of us decide the kind of food we would like to eat and each of us brings along one dish.This week the favoured food was Desi Chinese. So I made this Veg Manchurian

Ingredients: For the Dumplings: 1cup shredded cabbage, 1 cup grated carrots, 1 large onion, 4 to 5 mushrooms finely chopped, 2 tspn salt, 2 cloves of garlic crushed, Cornflour as per requirement.Oil for frying.

For the Sauce: 3 cups water , 1 tblspn brown vinegar, 1tblspn Soysauce, 2 tblspn tomato Sauce, 4 green chillies cut into very small pieces, 1 inch ginger chopped, 3 to 4 cloves garlic chopped, 2 tblspns Cornflour to thicken the sauce, half a green pepper cut into long strips, 1 tspn sugar and salt to taste 2 to 3 spring onions finely chopped for garnishing.

Procedure:

For the Dumplings:

Mix the carrots, cabbage , mushrooms and onions in a bowl. Add to this the salt, mix well and leave this mixture for 1/2 an hour. After about half an hour drain out the water that is formed due to the salt. Add cornflour to this moist mixture just so that you can shape the mixture into ball with your hand.Have hot oil ready in a wok and fry these balls on a medium heat . These can be made one day in advance and stored in a tight container in the fridge.

For the Sauce: In a little oil saute the chillies and he grenn pepper for a feww mins. Then add the ginger and garlic and saute further for a few mins. Add to this the sauces, vinegar, sugar and salt. Immediately add the water and bring to a boil. when the water begins to boil lower the heat to a simmer and add cornflour mixed in a little amount of water. The sauce will thicken a little. Do not thicken the sauce too much when it is hot as it thickens even more once it begins to cool . Taste the sause and add more sauces or vinegar if needed.Before serving add the cumplings to the hot sauce and garnish with chopped spring onions. Serve with Chinese Fried Rice or Noodles

Now after typing so much I think I'll do the next recipe tomorrow. Blogging takes more time and energy than actual cooking.

Veg Tawa Fry with Methi Muthia

Mix Veg Tawa Fry with Methi Muthia, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

Will share both the recipes very soon.