Gobi Manchurian

  

Sky loves cauliflower, especially gobi manchurian. Each time that I'd tried dissuading him from ordering gobi manchurian at restaurants, I'd promised to make it at home and after years of promising achche gobi manchurian at home, I finally made it last week. 

Skip doesn't like cauliflower but he likes gobi manchurian which he always proceeds to eat only after suspiciously sniffing and twirling it around in his little fingers, checking that it's not chicken being fed to him under the guise of cauliflower. 

Typically, I do not cook deep fried food at home, however in light of the current situation which has us away from restaurants; I've been a tad bit generous with the oil. Unlike chillypaneer, which you can shallow fry, I wouldn't recommend attempting to shallow fry cauliflower. 

The manchurian tasted good (as I've been told :D) and I made it twice in the span of one week. It goes well with noodles, poori, parantha, rice … with everything. It's gobi manchurian after all! 

GOBI MANCHURIAN 

Ingredients: 

Cauliflower - 1 (medium sized) 

Rice flour/cornflour - ¼ cup 

All-purpose flour(maida) - ¾ cup 

Onion - 1 (large, finely chopped) 

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp 

Chilly - 1 (slit) 

Capsicum - ½  (finely chopped, optional)

Soya sauce - 2 tbsp

Red chilly sauce (optional) - 1 tbsp

Tomato ketchup - 2 tbsp

Cornflour slurry- 1 tsp cornflour in ¼ cup water 

Salt - according to taste 

Red chilly powder- according to taste

Oil - for cooking 

Spring onions - 1 tbsp (chopped) 

Method:

1. Cut the cauliflower into tiny florets and blanch them. 

Blanching : heat water, add salt to it. Once the water starts boiling, add the florets into the boiling water and let it cook for 2 minutes. Take it off the heat, drain the water and pour cold water on the florets to stop the cooking process. 

2. In a separate bowl, add maida, rice flour (or cornflour), salt and chilly powder.  Add water and whisk it into a smooth, thick paste. (Adjust quantities of the flours according to the number of florets).

3. Add the florets into the batter and gently coat them.       

4. Deep fry the florets in hot oil by gently dropping them one by one into the oil until they turn crisp and golden and then set them aside on a plate with tissue paper to soak the excess oil. 

5. In a separate pan, heat oil and add onions. When they turn pink, add ginger garlic paste and chilly. Sauté it and then add capsicum. Sauté it for a minute.

6. Add soya sauce, red chilly sauce, tomato ketchup, salt and red chilly powder to the pan and mix it well. 

7. Add the cornflour slurry and mix till the liquid thickens. 

8. Add the fried florets into the pan and stir till it's well coated with the sauces.

9. Garnish with chopped spring onions. 

10. Done.

Recipe Notes :  

• Have the gobi manchurain as soon as it's prepared as it tends to get soggy especially if you cover it with a lid post cooking. 
• You may add a teaspoon of sugar or more tomato ketchup if you like the manchurian sweet. 

Hanuman has set Lanka on fire and as he flies away to report news of Sita's sighting to Rama, Skip in a grave tone says,"why couldn't Hanuman have carried Sita back on his shoulders, now he has burnt Lanka and caused so much air pollution."

For more experimental cooking you can try our previous recipes listed 👉 HERE!