Gobi Manchurian Dry

It's hard to believe that this is my favourite starter whenever I go out for dinner considering the fact that I had a revulsion for Cauliflower until my college days. Also cauliflower was BIG NO-NO in our households as there was a misconception that it's a variety of meat.

I felt that in the restaurants, onion/ginger are chopped finely and fried. We waste those onions eating only the florets. So I decided to stir fry the onion and capsicum and use ginger julienne instead of finely chopped ginger. Also in restaurants this dish is invariably prepared with Red/orange food colour. I feel it's not needed and the fresh chilly-garlic sauce is going to give us the natural colour.

I am going to prepare a fresh chilly/garlic sauce for this recipe. This can be stored and used for any other recipe also(Schezuan fried rice-:)). Soak red chillies and garlic in vinegar for 4-5 hours. Make a smooth paste without adding water. This sauce will be tastier than the ready made sauce available in the market.

Ingredients

Cauliflower florets- clean it and half cook in microwave with little water.
Maida - All purpose flour- 1/2 cup
Corn flour- 1/2 cup
salt to taste
water - to prepare the dough for deep frying
(ratio is 1:1. First prepare with half cup each of these flour. You can replenish if u fall short)

For the Gravy
( I have prepared a dry curry. If you want this as a gravy add corn flour mixed in water at the end and boil for a few minutes)
Spring onions- 1 cup
Onion-1 cut like lotus flower
Capsicum-1 cut into cubes
Ginger Juliennes
Garlic-red chilly- 5 each soaked in vinegar
Tomato sauce-1 cup
Soya sauce-1/4 cup
salt - a little

Procedure
First let us prepare the sauce before frying the florets
In a kadai heat a tablespoon of oil(olive oil preferably) and stir fry the onion and capsicum.

Add half of the spring onions and Ginger, toss for 3-4 seconds and keep it aside.

Rest of the spring onions we will use for garnishing.

In the same pan add tomato sauce, soya sauce and chilly/garlic sauce with one cup of water.Let it boil for 3-4 minutes. Switch off the stove and keep it aside.

Now the frying part...
Prepare a thick paste with maida and corn flour. Add required salt. Fold in the half-cooked florets.

Deep fry little by little.I prefer to use less oil for frying as we cannot reuse the oil. Take it out when it's golden brown in colour.

Deep fry all the florets and keep it ready.

Now comes the mixing part.
Fold in the florets, stir fried vegetables and toss the florets in the sauce so that they are evenly coated.

Garnish it with spring onions and serve hot and crisp cauliflower manchurian. If you are serving with Fried rice, make this as a gravy dish by adding 2 tablespoons of cornflour in a cup of water. Let it boil along with the other sauces.