Monday, December 20, 2010

Gobi Manchurian

Description:

                       Gobi Manchurian is inspired from Chinese cuisine. Serves as a great appetizer as well as side dish. Here is my recipe for Gobi Manchurian.

Ingredients:
1. Cauliflower  floretes- 1 cup
2. Rice flour - 1cup
3. Corn Starch - 2 or 3 tsp
4. Paprika(optional)
5. Milk - 2 tsp
6. Turmeric powder
7. Garlic/ginger paste
8. Ginger/ garlic pods
9. Green chilies - 3
10. Green capsicum - 2
11. Onion - 1
12. Soyasauce - 1 tspn
13. Chili sauce - 1to 2 tspn
14. Tomato sauce
15. Pepper powder
16. Garlic paste
17. Spring onion for garnishing
18. Salt to taste

Procedure:

                 Wash and cut the cauliflower into medium size florets. Take a vessel and put the cauliflower into it and add  some warm water with 2tspn of milk and a pinch of turmeric powder.  Let it soak  for sometime, this is done to clean off any remaining dirt inside the florets. Now take another bowl add the flour, corn starch, salt, soysauce, garlic/garlic paste, chilli sauce, water and make a batter. The batter shouldn't be too runny. Now add the cauliflower florets into this batter. Normally the batter coated florets are deep fried but I tried shallow frying and it came out good. So take a pan, pour little oil and slowly add one by one gobi coated with the batter. Shallow fry it properly on both the sides. Once it done frying in batches transfer the fried gobi's to some tissue paper so that the oil is absorbed.

            Next cut the onions and capsicums into small square pieces. Chop the green chilli, ginger and garlic into small pieces. Chop the spring onions also. Take a skillet, pour little oil. First add the ginger, garlic and the green chillies, saute it for few seconds. Next add the onions and saute it till it starts becoming  transparent. Then add the capsicum and paprika powder(optional). Now add soy sauce, tomato sauce and the chili sauce and mix all the ingredients properly. Allow all this to cook slightly for few seconds and then add the fried  cauliflower and pepper powder into it. Pour some the remaining batter we made to dip the florets into the skillet or you can even take little corn starch add water  and pour it. Let everything cook for few minutes. Add the salt as required. Stir occassionally otherwise it will get stick to the skillet bottom. Keep it on low flame till all the water vapour evaporates and the Gobi manchurian becomes dry. Serve the Gobi manchurian in a bowl and put the chopped spring onions on top of it as garnish. Gobi manchurian is ready to be served. 

Chicken nuggets

Description:
Another easy to prepare  snack which is very much liked by kids. Chicken Nuggets are molded pieces of chicken with some kind of batter/breaded then fried or baked. Here goes my recipe for Chicken nuggets.

Ingredients:
1. Chicken breasts - 300grm
2. Ginger/Garlic paste.
3. Plain flour - 1 cup
4. Egg white -1
5. Breadcrums(optional)
6. Parmesan grated cheese
7. Lemon juice
8. Oil
9. Salt to taste

Procedure:
 
             Take the chicken breast and cut it into small cube pieces. Put it in a bowl and add the ginger/garlic paste, salt, Lemon juice. Mix all the ingredients  and leave it aside for an hour to marinate. Take the flour in a bowl and the egg white is different bowl. Take oil in a pan for deep frying the chicken. Take the chicken cubes one by one and dip it first in the flour, pat away the excess flour on it and then dip in the egg white and drop it into the hot oil and deep fry it. Turn on both sides. Allow it to fry for 2-3 minutes. Gradually when the color changes take out the nuggets. Once all the chicken nuggets are fried , put some parmesan cheese on top and its ready to be served.  Ketch up can be served too with the nuggets.

Mirchi Bajji

Description:

              The most amazing evening snack especially on rainy days. It can be made with Bananna peppers, Serrano peppers etc.

Ingredients:
1. Peppers - 8
2. Chat masala
3. Chili powder - 1tsp
4. Besan powder - 1 small cup
5. Water
6. Oil
7. Salt to taste

Procedure.

            This snack is very easy to make. First wash the peppers and slit it into two pieces, whole pepper can be also used but I usually slit the peppers. After sliting take out the pepper seeds.  Take a bowl and add the Besan powder, salt, chili powder and water into it. Make a batter which is not very runny. Now take a pan with oil for deep frying. Heat the oil on medium flame, then dip the peppers one by one into the batter and put it into the hot oil. Deep fry the peppers till color slightly changes. It doesnot take much time, roughly may be just few seconds to get fried. So deep fry all the peppers by dipping in the batter. Once its done sprinkle chat masala on the Bajjis and mirchi bajji is ready to be served. Hope you all will like it.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Pork with bamboo shoots

Description:

               Very healthy recipe with no oil and masalas.

Ingredients:
1. Pork 
2. Bamboo shoots - 1/2 cup
3. Green chili - 3(If you have traditional raja mirchi at home then go ahead use it)
4. Dry red chili flakes
5. Cherry Tomatoes - 3
6. Ginger
7. Garlic
8. Onions
9. Spring onions(optional)
10. Water - 1ltr
10. Salt

Procedure:

                 If you could get your hands on some pork meat with fat then its perfect. First clean the pork and keep it in a bowl. Add some salt to it and leave it aside. Next cut the Onions into thin slices. Crush the ginger and garlic. Slit the green chilies . Actually, if this dish is made in a deep vessel/stock pan and cooked slowly then it will taste amazing. But since I don't have the same so I'm using cooker to cook. Take the cooker, add the pork meat, crushed ginger/garlic, green chillies, dry chilli flakes and Onions. Also goes in the the spring onions, bamboo shoot, salt and the cherry tomatoes.  Then give a good mix so that all the ingredients coats on the meat. Finally add good amount of water  for the pork to cook nice and tender.
                     If you are using a stock pan  then also same procedure  but cook it on medium flame for some 45-50 mnts. There is no need to give more stirs in between, just once or twice will be enough and leave it untouched to cook.  As I'm using cooker, so I cook it 7-8 whistles. Either ways make sure pork is cooked well. We don't have to add any extra oil, because the pork already have enough fat contents in it. Once the dish is ready serve it with hot rice. I hope you all will try this dish.