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BokChoyChicken_Featured3

Oriental flavours have always enticed me. They have that strong taste and the way it blends with meat and veggies cannot be defined in words. The combining sauce is often a blend of soy sauce, vinegar and ginger. This recipe has everything which gives it an authentic Oriental character. Recently, I found Bok Choy at my local farmer’s market. Honestly, I had no clue what it was. I asked the seller and even he was perplexed 😛 I bought it anyway and when I googled it I found it was bok choy, which I have always relished at my favourite oriental eatery.

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I decided to use it in an oriental asian stir fry recipe. I had some chicken on hand and also mushrooms, bell pepper. I was actually feeling rich given the fact such ingredients are scarce where I live. The Stir fry came out absolutely aromatic and full of flavours. We had it greedily with rice and it was decided then and there that it will be a regular feature in our household (whenever we have those ingredients :P)

Directions:

1. Cut Boneless Chicken into cubes and set aside.

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2. Wash heads of Bok Choy and split it into half. Cut the root part crosswise into squares. Leaves can be used in bokchoy soup, so reserve them.


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3. Wash and Chop Mushrooms in slices and Red Bell Pepper in Small Squares.


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4. In a pan add some vegetable oil and saute onion till they release their water and become a little brown.Remove them on a plate lined with Oddy Food Wrapping Paper, so that excess oil is soaked.


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5. Now add little more oil to the same pan and add Red bell Pepper and Bok Choy. Stir Fry till they have cooked but still retain their crisp character. Also remove them on the plate lines with Food Wrapping Paper.


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6. Repeat the same with Cubed Chicken. Stir Fry in the same pan by adding little oil. Season it with Salt and Pepper.


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7. In a saucepan add some Chicken Broth or if you are using Broth Cubes add water and Broth Cube. Bring it to a boil and then turn the flame off.

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8. In the same sauce pan add Sheer or White Wine, Soya Sauce and Sugar.


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9. Also add Rice Vinegar, Cornstarch dissolved in water and sesame oil.


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10. Also add Red Chili Flakes to the sauce pan and mix till everything is dissolved.

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11. In a pan add oil and saute minced garlic and ginger for a minute and then add all the stir fried veggies and chicken. Mix well.


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12. Add the sauce and let it simmer till it has reduced and thickened a little bit.

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13. Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle some roasted sesame seeds. Serve hot with some boiled rice.

Other Indo Chinese Recipe you can try on The Secret Ingredient are: Chili MushroomGravy Gobhi ManchurianCrispy Honey Chili Potatoes with Sesame SeedsIndo Chinese Vegetable Chop SueyVegetarian Hakka Noodles.

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[whohit]BokChoyChicken[/whohit]

[yumprint-recipe id=’191′] Sending this Recipe to Oddy Uniwraps

Darsaan_Featured1

Darsaan is a popular Chinese Dessert made with fried wonton noodles. The noodles are drizzled with Honey and Sesame seeds and accompanied with a scoop of  Vanilla Ice cream . I remember eating this dessert at Berco’s, time and again. Infact me and my husband loved eating this during our dating time 😉

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Out of the blue one afternoon my husband said we have ice cream in freezer lets eat Darsaan, I was zapped by his unexpected request   demand. I did a quick google and found it can be made readily without much effort. If you have wonton noodles you can make it in a jiffy but nevertheless wonton noodles can be made from scratch. Within no time it was ready to be devoured and it tasted cent percent like the way they serve at Chinese restaurants, On the occasion of Mother’s day make this for your mommy and express your love to her.

Directions:
1. In a bowl add some, all purpose Flour, baking powder and  salt. 


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2. Add oil and water and knead a soft dough. Let it rest covered for 20 minutes.


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3. Divide the dough into half. Roll each dough into 9 inch circle using a roller pin. You may use dry flour to ease rolling.


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4. Cut it into thin strips. Make sure the strips are thin otherwise they will puff up and will not be crunchy.

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5. Heat the oil in a wok and gently put the stripes to fry on medium low flame. Once they have achieved golden colour remove them on a paper towel to absorb extra oil.


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6. For the honey sauce add water and sugar in a sauce pan. Bring it to a boil. 


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7. Once the sugar syrup comes to a boil add honey and sesame seeds. Turn the flame off. Do not heat further for the sauce can thicken very fast.


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8 . Place the fried noodles on a serving platter and pour the honey sauce over it. Serve with a scoop of Vanilla Ice cream.

You can even enjoy more summer delights like Mango Coconut Milk Pudding. Pista Badam Kulfi.

Darsaan_Featured2[whohit]Darsaan[/whohit]

[yumprint-recipe id=’125′]

American-Chopsuey_Featured1
Okay! All this while I thought what they serve in the Indo Chinese restaurants was American Chop suey, because the menu card said so. But its amusing to find out that this particular Chop suey is actually Indianized version of American Chopsuey. Well stop rolling your eyes! Lemme explain again. Chop suey literally means odds and ends or assorted pieces. Its a recipe where all kind of leftovers are put together with noodles. However, supposedly in America some American Chinese started serving this dish with fried noodles. That is what named it American Chop Suey!

Traditionally this dish has a lot of sea food or meat or both but in India since we have a lot of vegetarians the Chinese living in India gave it an Indian look by replacing the meat with vegetables. This adaptation varies and holds good where ever Chop suey is loved like Filipino Chinese Cuisine, German Chinese Cuisine, Canadian Chinese Cuisine and the list is growing.

American-Chopsuey_Featured2
I remember the time I was dating like decade and a half back..(yeah I am ancient!) when me and my then boyfriend who is my husband used to hang out in Dilli HaatHe introduced me to Chop suey. Dilli Haat has some delicious Indo Chinese Food, whenever you get a chance to go do try it! 

Well coming back to the topic, in nutshell my husband is a big fan of Chop Suey, hands down. He will religiously order Chop Suey at every Chinese restaurant we go. So one day he was like make Chop Suey for me  and I was like whattt!!! I had no idea how to go about it. I mean had a basic idea that its fried noodles with vegetables and sauce. Mr. Google came to my rescue and I read some recipes. When I fried the first batch of noodles they became sticky and laced. It was a disaster. I kept searching and found a video of a humble lady who gave a tip as to how to fry the noodles so that they come out crisp and non sticky. The video is now taken down or the link doesn’t work. 🙁 The rest was easy and I came up with this delicious Indo Style Vegetable Chop suey.

Directions:

1. Boil the noodles till al dente. Learn here how to boil pasta perfectly. Drain the water and run them under cold water. Let them rest so that they become little dry.

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2. Chop some vegetables like carrots, capsicum, green beans, spring onions or normal red onions, whichever you have on hand. Set aside.

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3. In a wok or frying pan add some oil and heat it.

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4. Place the boiled noodles in a large plate. and Sprinkle on it some corn flour. 

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5. Mix gently so that each noodle is coated with corn flour.

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6. When the oil is hot add the noodles together into the wok. When one side is fried and turn golden you can flip it using a slotted spatula.

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7. Remove them on a paper towel so that extra oil can be absorbed. Keep them aside till we make the sauce for the chop suey.

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8. Remove the oil from the wok leaving only a tablespoon of it. Add ginger garlic paste and saute for couple of seconds.

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9. Add chopped onions and saute them.

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10. Add carrots, beans and capsicum and saute them on high flame till they become a little cooked but still crisp.

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11. Add salt and sugar. 

 


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12. Add some black pepper.

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13. Add some Szechuan Sauce. You can make it at home  and here is the recipe Szechuan Sauce.

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14. Add tomato ketchup and Soya Sauce.


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15. Also add white distilled vinegar.
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16. Add Water and bring it to a simmer. You can add vegetable stock instead of water or add stock cube with the water.


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17. In a small bowl mix cornflour and water. Add this to the wok.


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18. Let the sauce thicken up a bit and then switch the flame off. In the meanwhile line the serving platter with fried noodles.

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19. Top it with Sauce and Vegetables.

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Enjoy 🙂
You can even try other dishes from Indo Chinese Cuisine like Chili Mushrooms, Chili Honey Crisp Potatoes, Hakka Noodles, Szechuan Sauce, Vegetable Momos, Gobhi Manchurian.

American-Chopsuey_Featured3[whohit]Chopsuey[/whohit]

[yumprint-recipe id=’119′]

ChiliPotatoes_Featured1

My love for Indo Chinese Cuisine is increasing with growing years. To my surprise I do not like the food they serve at restaurants in the garb of Chinese food. The same gravy is poured over all dishes and they all taste alike. But making them at home has introduced me to different flavours and styles. I love to make Chili Mushrooms, Veg Manchurian, Gobhi Manchurian, Veg Momos with Szhezuan Sauce, Chili Baby Corn and now the latest and crispiest Chili Potatoes with Honey Glaze.

I always remember eating these potatoes but they were always frail and soggy simply smeared in the sauce. But when I tried making them at home they came out crispy with a crunch. Ohh Lord it was shere food porn. There are a few things which you must follow to make them crisp. It may look like a long procedure but the results will speak for themselves. I bet you will never go back making them the way you usually do.

Directions:

1. Wash and Peel Potatoes.


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 2. Cut them into half and further cup them into small fingers of more or less equal size.


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 3. Pour water in a sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Add salt.

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4. Put the finger potatoes into the water and submerse  for 5 minutes. Once blanched remove them from the water using a skimmer.

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5. Run them under cold water for a minute so that they stop cooking. Set aside.

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6. In a bowl add All purpose Flour, Corn Flour and Salt.


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7. Now add salt and mix everything using your fingers. Take little flour in your fist and press lightly. If it comes together you know its correct.


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8. Add blanched potatoes and mix. Coat the potatoes with flour using your hand.

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9. Now  in a different bowl add more All Purpose Flour, Corn Flour and salt.


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10. Now add oil and water and whisk the batter to make it lump free.


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11. Heat Oil in a wok for frying.

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12. Dip the flour coated potato fingers in the batter and fry them partially on medium high flame for 5 minutes.


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13. Remove them from oil once you see them turn slight golden.

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14. Separate fingers if they stick together.

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15. Now fry them for the second time on low flame till they turn golden and crisp. This step is very important because this will ensure you have very crisp fries.


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16. Remove them on a paper towel to absorb any extra oil. 

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17. For the sauce chop some spring onions, ginger, Garlic, green chilies and capsicum. You can even use bell pepper. I have used yellow.

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18. In a pan pour some oil and heat it. Add spring onions, slit green chilies, ginger & Garlic and saute them. 

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19. Now add Capsicum and bell peppers and saute them as well.

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20. Dissolve Cornflour in some water and set aside.


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21. Add to the sauteed onions some soy sauce, szechuan sauce (not in pics) and Tomato Ketchup.


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 22. Also add Freshly ground Pepper, salt and Sesame seeds .


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23. Add the cornflour mixture we made before. Keep stirring on high flame till the sauce has reduced and thickened.

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24. Turn the flame OFF and then add Honey for the glaze.

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25. Wait for 5 minutes to let the sauce cool down a bit. Now add the fried potatoes. If you add the potatoes before it will make them soggy.

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26. Transfer to a serving platter and sprinkle some more sesame seeds and onion greens.

You can even try Roasted Rosemary Garlic Potatoes.

You can also try more dishes from Indo Chinese Cuisine like Chili Mushroom, Szechuan Sauce, Vegetarian Momos. Vegetarian Hakka Noodles.

ChiliPotatoes_Featured2

 

[whohit]ChiliPotatoes[/whohit]

[yumprint-recipe id=’117′]

GobhiManchurian_Featured1
Indo Chinese style has a fantastic flavour and this Gobhi Manchurian is in continuation to my other Indo Chinese dishes of Vegetarian Hakka Noodles and Chili Mushrooms. I will soon be posting Vegetable Munchurian, Szechuan Rice, American Chopsuey and many more as a part of this series. This way when you decide to make an indo chinese platter you can easily do it following my posts.

The best part of making these indo chinese dishes at home is that ypu can use as many vegetables you like and make them as healthier as you like. I love to club these with Noodles or Fried rice which are again loaded with vegetables. Since Cauliflower is in season you can utlise them to make Gobhi Manchurian.

Directions:

1. Take some fresh Cauliflowers and remove their stems. Do not throw the stems away for you can use them to make Gobhi Danthal. Cut the cauliflower in to small florets.


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2. Wash the florets under running water.

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3. Add water in a vessel and bring it to a boil. Add salt to it. And then add the florets to it to blanch for 15-20 minutes.


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4. In the meanwhile add All purpose Flour to a bowl.

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5. Add to it Cornflour and  minced ginger garlic.


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6. Also add salt and pepper to it.


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7. Add soya sauce and water  and combine to make a lump free batter.


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8. In a wok add some oil and put it to heat.

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9. Drain the water and tap dry them using a kitchen towel.

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10. Dip the florets of cauliflower in the batter and fry them in hot oil.


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11. Fry them till slight golden brown and remove them on a kitchen towel to soak extra oil.

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12. In the same wok add some oil and chopped onions and saute them for a few minutes.

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13. Add chopped or minced ginger garlic paste, along with chopped green chilies.

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14. In the meanwhile in a small bowl add some corn flour and add little water, Mix it and make a lump free mixture. Set aside.


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15. Add soya sauce, salt and pepper to the onion garlic ginger mix.


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16. Add water and bring the mixture to a boil.


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17. Once the gravy comes to a boil add the cornflour sauce and combine. In a few minutes you will see the sauce has thickened.

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18. When the gravy has achieved right consistency add the fried cauliflower florets. Stir and simmer for a few minutes.

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19, Garnish with greens of spring onion and serve hot with fried rice or Hakka Noodles.

You can even try the recipe of Szechuan Sauce, Szechuan Vegetable Steamed Dumplings, Chili Mushrooms.

[whohit]GobhiManchurian[/whohit]

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[yumprint-recipe id=’96’]