Indo Chinese food – now, you just have to taste it once, JUST ONCE to fall head over heels in love with it and continue to love it until death do you apart! For a really large part of my life, I grew up thinking this was “Chinese” food that even now I find it very difficult to think and know that Vegetable Manchurian or Chilli Paneer is not Chinese. That’s how popular this fusion cuisine is in India. Seriously!! This is no laughing matter.
Indian Chinese cuisine is basically Chinese cuisine that is adapted to the Indian taste by using a lot of spices and other ingredients that are more common in Indian cuisine than traditional Chinese and its a lot spicier too. For eg, the use of paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese), Cauliflower, cilantro, tamarind and even cumin and coriander sometimes. Ketchup is also a very common ingredient. I read up a little bit about the origin of this cuisine and it looks like it came from the Chinese who have settled in Calcutta (a North Eastern city in India) for probably a couple of centuries now.
Coming back to the post, a couple of weeks ago, I made some vegetable balls in hot garlic sauce inspired by a couple of recipes in Tarla Dalal’s Chinese Cooking and in memory of the restaurant All Spice in the small town of Kollam (Quilon) in Kerala (a Southern state in India) for about 7 years of my life including my undergrad. AJ and I used to sneak out and go there for our “dates”! Aah, good old days!
Recipe : Vegetable Balls in Hot Garlic Sauce
Adapted from 3 different recipes in Tarla Dalal’s Chinese Cooking
| For the Vegetable Balls:1/4 head of a cabbage, finely chopped 2 carrots, grated 1/2 red onion, chopped 4-5 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 inch piece ginger, minced 2 Thai green chillies, minced 1/4 cup all purpose flour 2 tbsp corn starch salt and freshly ground black pepper Cooking spray For the sauce: For Schezuan Sauce : 2 cloves garlic, minced |
For the Schezuan sauce : Boil a cup of water and add the dry red chillies, Sichuan pepper corns and garlic to it. Simmer for 5-6 mins and let it cool. Drain the water and grind to a smooth paste. Now heat the oil in a pan and sauté the garlic, ginger, green chillies and onion. Add the celery to it. Add the chilli paste at this point and sauté for a few mins. Make sure to keep the vent fan on and the windows open. It can get quite irritating from all the chillie. Mix in the cornstarch paste and pour in the vegetable stock and vinegar. Add sugar and salt and bring to a boil. Keep aside.
To make the vegetable balls : Combine all the ingredients in a moxing bowl and add a little water to hold them all together. Make small lime sized balls out of the mixture and keep aside. Preheat oven to 350F. Lay parchment paper on a cookie sheet and place the balls on it. Spray the cooking spray over them and bake till they are a little golden brown on the outside.
For the sauce: Heat the oil in a wok over high heat. Add the ginger, garlic and green chillies and stir fry for a few mins. Add the veggie balls and fry for some more time. Now add the Schezuan sauce, tomato ketchup, soy sauce, vegetable stock, sugar and salt and bring to a boil. Garnish with chopped scallions. Serve hot with some vegetable fried rice or hakka noodles.
This seems like a lot of work. But trust me, its totally worth it!! Enjoy!
{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
you killed me with those pictures Manju.. droolworthy
it does seem like a lot of work… but going by your pictures, it is soooo totally worth it !
Hy Superchef,
Such a spicy n rich recipe…Have no words to mention about that delicious click…Thanks for the recipe dear.
Its in my try list for a long time..must try this..u tempted me..
Luv manchurians…either with gobi or vegetables…looks saucy and yummy!
So so delicous looking, if this was with non i would have made them for my carnivorous family.
I would love this thou.
Looks amazing Manju…i have been dying to try a recipe like this…its so difficult to get my husband to eat his veggies…this recipe shud definitely save me…;)
The photo is so tempting! I can only imagine how good it tastes. Booked for the next chinese food night.
Omg, wat a tempting bowl of goodness, lipsmacking dish..
can i try the same with chicken or cauliflower? Would be just as nice..just wondering, cos im a lazy lout and by the time i finish with the veg balls, il prob decide to not continue:)
The colour is brilliant and I'm also a sucker for Indo Chinese grub..
mmm, looks tasty….
BTW I found this Indian recipe book "Indian Cookery And Confectionery | by I. R. Dey" contains many good recipes…
Check it out
http://bookdome.com/food/Indian-Cookery-Confectionery/index.html
Cheers!
This is mouthwatering one… looks too good and I cant wait to make it …
This one is to treasure…looks just amazing..wow..lovely clicks
Spicy and delicious dish.. looks soooooooooo yummmm… Amazing clicks dear!!
yummm.. Looks so fantastic and a great picture too
Seeing those snaps the hungry mouse in my belly has transformed in to dinosorus and started jumping madly in hunger….and i am slobbering so much that my toung has come out knee length…do I have do tell more how much the dish have touched my heart????
OMG…..its so yummy!!
I am mad for Chinese food…and today so many guys have posted Chinese…craving like mad now.
As much as I love Indo- Chinese fusion cuisine, I never venture into preparing the most sought after chilli gobi, manchurian etc. I am not too sure that I would be able to recreate the same taste that I used to enjoy in India and want to hold on to that memory of food. For the first time I am really feeling the need give it a try. Very nice photos as usual and thanks for sharing the recipe.
OMG, you are killing me. Love these at the restaurant of course. Can I come over :-
)
Looks absolutely stunning.. Yummy to the core and I am drooling over the clicks. Simply fantastic buddy
Thats one awesome recipe..yes, can see its worth all that work..:)
I've heard about Allspice in Kollam…quite famous 'love-birds' place huh.;)
Fabulous clicks, Manju..It looks sooo perfect and delicious!!
simply superb, you have capured the dish very well..loe that manchurian balls
That looks absolutely mouthwatering!
Looks Delicious Manju ! Gr8 Click…..
This looks really delicious – it will be perfect with rice!!
Looks delicious, nice clicks too.
Wow, the click is super tempting, I am drooling here as I love this.
Very gorgeous pict, feel having right away!
Looks delicious..super click !!!!
wow…lovely click….yummy recipe
AAHH!! This looks super super super WONDERFUL!!! Oh I can just breath in the spices! Oh man…the rich color, and the rich spices…oh this needs to be in my mouth. Now!
Hello,
We bumped into your blog and we really liked it – great recipes YUM YUM.
We would like to add it to the Petitchef.com.
We would be delighted if you could add your blog to Petitchef so that our users can, as us,
enjoy your recipes.
Petitchef is a french based Cooking recipes Portal. Several hundred Blogs are already members
and benefit from their exposure on Petitchef.com.
To add your site to the Petitchef family you can use http://en.petitchef.com/?obj=front&action=site_ajout_form or just go to Petitchef.com and click on "Add your site"
Best regards,
Vincent
petitchef.com
thanks all you dearies for the most wonderful comments ever!!
That really look delicious. And the sauce sounds…alluring.
Looks ravishing!
Hy Dear,
Some Awards are waiting for you in my blog. Do drop by to collect them.
how come i missed such a beautiful blog?? happy to become ur follower.
this recipe was my fav. there was a restaurant near my house, where they used to serve this.
ur snap reminds me of this. Love the color. nice presentation.
Long time since I have made this. must give it a try.
oh my goodness, these vegetable balls in that delicious sauce look terribly tempting!!! looks fantastic!!!
thanks all of you!! and thanks Jay for the award!
I was mentioning about All spice restaurant in my previous post. I am from Kollam. All spice restaurant belongs to my Uncle ..
Super yummy, the sauce was awesome (even though I used a store-bought szechuan sauce). Just one thing: how did you get the balls to stay together? Mine just kept falling apart. But SO GOOD!
ya really u r a super chef yarr..what a delicious vegetable balls..looks so spicy what a lovely color..i used to prepare the indo chineese chili chicken.
btw i think its my first visit to ur site..lovely space u have..love to see ur new recipes..following u
This recipe failed badly. The balls didn't stay together, the sauce was bad and didn't look at all like in the picture. I advice you not to try this recipe.
Thanks everyone!
@ anonymous 1 : There mustve been more moisture in the mix than required which is why the balls kept falling apart. Try adding more flour to it to keep it together. I am glad you liked it otherwise and hope you will try again.
@anonymous; I am sorry this happened to you. This is not my recipe but the recipe of a very well known chef in India – Tarla Dalal. I tried this from her book and it came out perfectly for me. I have made it atleast 4-5 times now and not a single time it has failed me. I understand that this recipe is a really long one and it is easy to run out of patience. Also such long indo-chinese recipes are generally difficult to get it right in the first place if you don't follow it exaclty or you don't know what the taste is going to be like in the end. I really hope you will give this a try again. Also, instead of making the veggie balls, try just adding stir-fry vegetable to this. I am sure that will be an easier recipe for you to try.
this looks so delicious. I linked to it on my blog – it makes me hungry everytime I see it
http://parentplanet.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/great-sites-7-15/