Gobi Manchuri

Gobi Manchuri was one of the favourite street foods when I was in college. My friends and I would regularly visit Srinivas' gaadi. Initially he started off near our college, and we used to stop by often to grab a plate of the delicious Gobi Manchuri he made. Late he rented a small shop, and inside the shop he had his gaadi. It was very weird but we didn't mind at all as long we got our share of chats and manchuri. We used to sit on our two wheelers and enjoy the yummy stuff. After we moved to the US, Gobi Manchuri was another dish I missed a lot. Street food always has its own taste (for whatever reasons :-D) and its hard to duplicate the same at home. Nevertheless, that didn't stop me from trying to make some!

The taste was great and better than when I made it the first time, which was kind of a disaster because the fried Gobi fell apart by the time it was in the sauce :( A lesson well learned I knew what had gone wrong and made the necessary changes. And this time I even made up the recipe for the sauce.

You will need:

½ head Cauliflower cut into florets
1 Green beller pepper cubed or thinly sliced
1 Onion cubed or sliced
2-3 Green chillies slit (vary to suit your taste)
½ cup Corn flour
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Dark soy sauce
1 tbsp Red Chilli sauce
1 tsp Ketchup
1 tsp Vinegar
A Pinch Ajinomoto (Chinese salt)
½ tsp White pepper powder
Salt to taste
Oil for frying plus 2-3 tbsp

Bring a small pot of water to boil and add 1 tsp salt. Add cauliflower and par boil, for around 4-5 minutes. Drain and keep aside. Heat oil in a deep pan for frying. Make a thick batter of the corn flour with water. It should be thick enough to coat the floret evenly, otherwise the coating will fall apart when tossing with the sauces. Dip each floret in this batter and drop in hot oil. Fry till light brown. Make sure oil is not too hot, this will lead to fast and uneven browning. Drain excess oil from fried florets on paper towels.

In a small bowl, mix the light and dark soy sauces, chilli sauce, ketchup and vinegar to make one sauce. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan. Add green chillies and fry for a minute. Then add onions and sauté till half done. Add the bell pepper and sauté till both onions and bell pepper are cooked through. Add the fried florets and salt. Pour the prepared sauce mixture over the florets and veggies and toss to coat completely. Sprinkle white pepper and ajino moto. Toss well to combine. Taste and season accordingly. Garnish with chopped coriander and/or chopped scallions. Serve hot.

This is one of the ultimate comfort foods no matter what, so I'm sending this over to Meeta's "Monthly Mingle: Comfort Foods" at What's For Lunch Honey?