Mushroom Manchurian

The confident statement that arises from me while working in any kitchen is that I am an expert in making manchurian dishes. Be it Gobi or Mushrooms, I seldom flaw and perfect it blindfolded :)

 Mushroom Manchurian, dry (To serve 4)

Button mushrooms,15-20 (I used a 200gm packet)

For the batter:

3/4 cup maida
1/4 cup cornflour
A green chilly, crushed or 2 tsps of green chilly sauce or 1/2 tsp red chilly powder
2 shallots/small onions-crushed
A tsp of minced garlic
Salt, to taste
Water, to make a thick batter

Oil- to deep fry

 Final Mix up:

2 tbsp- Oil
A tbsp of ginger + garlic, julienned (or paste)
A green bell pepper- cut into 1/2 inch squares
A big onion - cut into 1/2 inch squares
2 tbsp- dark soy sauce (I used Ching's secret)
1 tbsp- green chilly sauce ( I used Weikfields)
1/2 tsp red chilly powder or 2 red chillies broken into 3 pcs each
1/4 tsp white pepper powder
Salt- to taste (be careful, the sauces contain salt)
Scallions- to garnish





Method: 

1. Wash and slice the mushrooms thin and long.

2. Prepare the batter with the ingredients listed, thick, which resembles dosa/idly batter, in a wide vessel.

3. Dump the sliced mushrooms into the batter and mix well. Drop small bite sized pieces into hot oil and deep fry until browned, as batches. Keep aside.

4. Now for the mixing up part; in a broad and wide wok, heat 2 tbsp oil and sauté the sliced ginger-garlic,(broken red chillies if you substitute red chilly powder), onion and capsicum in that order and sauté for a couple of minute. The onions and bell pepper should retain its crispiness and do not let them turn brown.They need to be just translucent.

5. Now add the red chilly powder(if you omit red chilly bits), soy and chilly sauces along with white pepper powder in high flame and mix continuously for a few seconds.

I took off the dish from the stove at this stage after adding the fried mushrooms and mixing it up well together allowing the sauces and spices to seep in and did not add any water as I needed the dry version. I served hot garnished with scallions (spring onion greens).

If you prefer a semi dry version;

6. Add ½ cup of water at the end of stage 5 above along with the fried and cooled mushroom chunks.

7. Sauté again for 3-4 minutes to absorb excess water of any and switch off fire when it is semi dry/ saucy consistency has reached. Let the pieces be 'a li'l crisp' and not soggy at this stage.Garnish with scallions and serve hot with Indochinese fried rice or noodles.

If you like the gravy version of the same, add some more water, say 1/2 - 3/4 cup more and make it thick by adding a tspful cornflour while you bring it to boil. Simmer for a few minutes and serve hot. Again, see to it that you add a little extra amounts of the sauces and spices as the water dilutes the final taste of the gravy version.





Plagiarism

While composing the post it reminded me of this site (pls dont click on the link giving them more hits, the screen shot is just below) which lifted my Gobi manchurian picture without permission and advertised in the name of Mushroom manchurian in theirs!! :)

I had mailed them but no response until now nor they removed my picture.
As soon as I post this, I am thinking of mailing them to lift any of the pictures from here as a fresh substitution so that they play fair at least with their customers ;)

Well, these guys, Andhra Corner @ Onetech (pls dont click on the link giving them more hits, the screen shot is just below) has also lifted the same picture and named Gobi Manchurian...(thankfully not fooling their readers with the image part but with editing the recipe a bit). I have yet to write to them but have no hope that they would remove the picture and do some justice.

My original post of Gobi Manchurian which I prepared for Arusuvai Season-1

Coming back to the recipe of Mushroom Munchurian, this seems to be complicated, but believe me, it's simple. Even if the measurements of sauces or ingredients get altered a little, the final outcome will always be great! I love this dry version the best as it has the exact 'restaurant style' taste of crispy mushrooms, with the added traditional blackish hue, soaked in the flavour of the rich dark soy!

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Arusuvai Friendship Chain - Gobi Manchurian!..

I received the much eagerly awaited packets of Arusuvai Surprise Ingredient from dear Lathamma of Yum Blog just the proceeding week she had made the announcement!.

Renuka and myself were thrilled to receive them, almost the same time on 7th Nov-the Diwali Eve!!..

To much of our surprise we received Laddoos which dear Lathamma had made in the announcement post!..they had been turned to boondis due to the mishandling by the courier people, yet they tasted PERFECT!!..with all the bursting aroma of cardamom and cloves and the soft, chewy, sweetness was divine!!..
Moreover the packets and the laddoos were seated comfortably in Tupperware containers, she had Gifted specially for both of us!!.

Thanks a ton, my sweet Lady!!:)

The packet I received was pure white in colour and had a very powdery texture.I sniffed it and tasted a pinch and soon came to the conclusion-CORN FLOUR!! :D..
I'm pretty comfortable with this ingredient when it comes to Indochinese cooking and decided to come up with the semi dry version of Gobi Manchurian; as the name suggests a well known Indochinese side dish.

Here goes...

Ingredients:

1 Medium Gobi/Cauliflower-cut into florets

For the batter,

½ cup Cornflour(the surprise ing :))
½ cup Maida/All purpose flour
2 tsps of Ginger + Garlic-crushed
3 small onions/shallots-crushed
A tsp Red chilly powder
Salt-to taste
Oil- to deep fry

Final Mix up;

2 tbsp-Oil
A tbsp of Ginger + Garlic-julienned
A Capsicum(green or red)-cut into ½ inch squares
A Big Onion- cut into ½ inch squares
2 tbsp-Soy sauce
2 tbsp-Green chilly sauce
A tsp red chilly powder
Salt-to taste
Spring onions-to garnish

The Surprise Ingredient was white in colour and very powdery in texture which was confirmed to be “Cornflour”and the yummy "Laddoos-turned-to-Boondis!"...The Tupperware containers were also gifted along with!..:)

“IN” goes the Ingredient with the others.

The batter into which the precooked florets were dipped and deep fried.

Method:

1. Wash the cauliflower florets and boil them for a couple of minutes in salted water(should be just 1/4th cooked and not over cooked).Drain and keep aside.

2. Mix cornflour, maida, crushed ginger garlic, small onions ,chilly powder and salt with warm water to make a thick batter.

3. Dip Cauliflower florets into this batter and deep fry them until golden brown. Set aside.

4. Now for the mixing up part ; in a broad and wide wok, heat 2tbsp oil and sauté the sliced ginger-garlic, onion and capsicum in that order and saute for a couple of minute.The onions and capsicum should retain its crispiness and do not let them turn brown.They need to be just translucent.

5. Now add the red chilly powder, soy and chilly sauces in high flame and mix continuously for a few seconds.

6. Add ½ cup of water to this and fried and cooled gobi chunks.

7. Sauté again for 3-4 minutes to absorb excess water of any and switch off fire when it is semi dry/ saucy consistency has reached. Let the pieces be 'a li'l crisp' and not soggy at this stage.

Garnish with freshly chopped spring onion greens and serve hot with Indochinese noodles or rice.

My packets of Surprise Ingredients are already off to my dear blogger friends Lakshmi and Lissie ; of course with personalised letters :)…

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Indo Chinese Vegetable Noodles.

Indochinese dishes are the ones prepared using the Chinese cooking methods using the Indian ingredients, a fusion , accepted by most of the Indians world wide.

Vegetable Chow mein or noodles is my kids’ favourite, preferred any time of the day.As they are pure vegetarians( not allowed to stir in eggs either ;)..I go chop chopping the veggies...and once this part is done, the preparatory becomes simple and interesting.

Here’s my version of it..

To serve 4;

You need:

Noodles –a 200gm pack -I used Savorit Brand which is 100% veg.

Oil-to coat the cooked noodles-a tbsp

Oil you prefer-3 tbsps

Onion-one-sliced thin lengthwise

Carrots-julienned-1/2cup
Cabbage-shredded-1/2cup
Capsicum-julienned-1/2 cup
Ginger-minced or julienned-a tbsp
Garlic-3 cloves-minced or julienned
Soy sauce-a tbsp-more or less
Green chilly sauce-2 tsps-more or less
Aji-no-moto-1/4 tsp
Salt-to taste
White pepper powder-1/4 tsp
Spring onions-chopped- to garnish

To cook the noodles:

Boil a litre of water in a large pan.Add salt.When it bubbles and swirls, add noodles.Reduce the flame to medium and close the pan with a lid.Cook for 4-5 minutes or until they are ‘just’ soft.Take care not to over cook.The cooking time depends upon the quality of the noodles and the softness of the water.Drain the noodles to discard the water completely.Keep the noodles along with the drainer under a running tap of cold water.Drain the cold water and add a tbsp of oil and mix it along gently using your fingers,as the noodles must have turned cold by now.This helps to keep the strands separate and glossy.

Preparation:

Heat 3tbsps of oil in a large wok,sauté onions for a few seconds, add ginger, garlic and sauté again.Now add the vegetables(carrot, cabbage and capsicum)and sauté for 2-3 minutes, keeping the flame high.(This is imp when it comes to chinese method of cooking).Let the vegetables be crisp or just cooked and not too soft.
Add the soy and chilly sauces, aji-no-moto and mix well to the vegetables.Add the cooked noodles and mix altogether.Sprinkle pepper powder and check salt.Garnish with spring onions and serve hot with Gobi  Manchurian / Mushroom Munchurian any Indochinese sidedish.

The first picture is my entry to Click, the very own event hosted by Jai and Bee.

This is also my submission to Margot of Coffee & Vanilla who is hosting Vegetarian Awareness Month.

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