Cauliflower and Baby Corn Manchurian

At one time, Indo-Chinese was my favourite cuisine while eating out. I think that was before I discovered Italian eateries. At one time, I could make a lot of Italian food at home, but could never make Chinese food. Amma had eaten cauliflower manchurian somewhere and had fallen in love with it.

I got this recipe from a lady at my gym many years ago. It has not just remained in my family, but has been shared with many friends. Last week Amma called to ask for the recipe and I gave it to her over the phone. My colleague heard me give her the recipe. The very next day Amma called and told me that it had come out very well and my colleague, A, said she had made it for her husband and some guests and they were floored. All this made me want to eat the stuff. So I made this to celebrate the first birthday of our baby. We don't have to have cake all the time, do we?

I had some cauliflower and baby corn in the fridge that I wanted to use up before I left for my week long vacation to paradise a.k.a. Madras. I shouldn't be saying this myself, but the manchurian was fantastic. We polished off an entire bowlful in a matter of minutes along with our plum wine (that seems to have been the wine of the month!). We also had some sweet corn vegetable soup to complete our meal.

1 cup Cauliflower florets, steamed

1 cup Baby Corn, steamed

Oil for frying

For the Batter:

1/4 cup Corn Flour

1/4 cup Flour

1 tsp Green Chilli Paste

1 tsp Garlic Paste

1 tsp Ginger Paste

A few drops Soy Sauce

Salt to taste

For the sauce:

1 bunch Spring Onions, whites and greens chopped separately

1 tbsp Garlic Paste

1 tsp Green Chilli Paste

1 tsp Ginger Paste

1 tsp Soy Sauce

1 tbsp Red Chilli Sauce

1 tsp Green Chilli Sauce

2 tbsp Tomato Ketchup

Salt to taste

1 tbsp Oil

To make the batter, mix the flours and add the ginger, chilli and garlic pastes. Add the soy sauce and some salt. Add about 1/3 cup water to make a batter. (This must be thinner than pancake batter.)

Heat the oil. Dip the cauliflower and baby corn pieces in the batter and drop into the oil. Fry until golden in colour. Remove and drain on absorbent paper.

To make the sauce, heat the table spoon of oil and add the ginger, chilli and garlic pastes and fry for a few minutes. Add the spring onion greens and fry for a minute. Add the red and green chilli sauces along with the soy sauce and mix well. Add the tomato ketchup and salt. Stir in the fried cauliflower and baby corn pieces. Garnish with the spring onion greens.

This makes a great appetizer. This would rank as one of my favourite snacks. This time it turned out almost as good as the one I used to relish at the bandi near the Malleswaram market in Bangalore. I am almost there. Yippee!