GOBI (CAULIFLOWER) MANCHURIAN

Most of my Chinese and Mughlai recepes are like Lopamudra, who owed her beauty to different creatures (including humans) from whom each of her body parts and qualities were taken. It was Chilli Gobi which I made first making use of the recipe for Chilli Chicken and the result was not that great. (as far as I know Chilli Gobi is a dry dish whereas Gobi Manchurian comes with gravy. But we can get 2 versions of Chilli Gobi from restaurants- the dry one and  the one with gravy - confusion again ) After some 5-6 years my collegue Tessy gave me another recipe (that too intended for Chilli Chicken) Again I tried and the result was ok. It was after coming to Kuwait that I happened to taste the super tasty (super hot too) Chilli Gobi from Udippi restaurant here. I tried to recreate it but both the judges (my daughter and husband ) refused to give it an "excellent" grade.

Finally something happened during the summer of 2009. I was in LA with my daughter and we went for a forum meet (I am a member of the forum http://www.sangeethasallapam.com/) There I tasted the Best Gobi Manchurian  which got an instant certificate for excellence  from my daughter. It was prepared by my friend Ammu and I asked for the recipe. She said she followed the recipe of the Yummy team with some improvisation from her side. I started making GM incorporating the ideas I got from the chilli gobi recipes I used and also from the GM recipe by both Yummy team and Ammu. It is almost 2 years and the recipe has undergone changes again. This is the recipe I used today.

INGREDIENTS

1. Cauliflower - 400 gm
2. Maida - 1/4 cup
3. Corn flour - 1/4 cup + 1 tea spoon
4. Kashmiri chilli powder - 1/2 table spoon
5. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tea spoon
6. Salt
7. Diced onion - 1/2 cup
8. Diced capsicum - 3/4 cup (I took green, yellow and red bell peppers)
9. Vegetable oil
10. Garlic - 2 cloves
11. Ginger - 3/4" cube
12. Soy sauce - 1 table spoon (optional)
13. Tomato sauce - 3 table spoon
14. Chilli garlic sauce - 2 table spoon
15. Vinegar - 1 tea spoon
16. Salt
17. Pepper 1/2 tea spoon
18 Sugar - 1 pinch
19. Spring onion chopped - 2 table spoon

METHOD

1. Mix 2-6 with some water to get a thick batter. Cut cauliflower into small florets. Put them into the batter 

2. Heat oil in a pan. Put a handful of florets coated with the batter into  oil. Fry for 2-3 minutes, flip and fry again. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel. Break into small pieces when cold. Fry the whole cauliflower like this. Keep the oil aside.

3. Crush the garlic and ginger lightly.

4. Heat  1 table spoon oil from step 2 in a pan. (you can use the same pan) Saute the ginger and garlic for 1-2 minutes. Add onion and capsicum and saute till they are soft but crunchy.

5. Add the sauces and pepper powder and stir for 1 minute

6. Mix 1 tea spoon corn flour with 1/2 a cup of water. Stir and cook on low heat. When the gravy thickens add vinegar, salt and sugar. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

7. Switch off and add spring onion. Mix.

8. Finally add the fried gobi and mix well.