8) GOBI MANJOORI : A NICE CAULIFLOWER DISH

GOBI MANJOORI (MANCHURIAN)

A NICE CAULIFLOWER DISH

THE STAR OF INDIAN VEGAN STREET FOOD

Ingredients for cooking:

     1)    Cauliflower – 1 kg.

     2)    Corn flour – 200 gm.

     3)    Refined wheat flour (Maida) – 100 gm.

     4)    Home made fresh tomato sauce – 200 ml. (Recipe given below      separately)

     5)    Soy Sauce – 100 ml.

     6)    Onions – 350 gm.

     7)    Capsicum medium size – 1 No.

     8)    Ginger – 1 inch piece

     9)    Garlic – 4 cloves

     10)     Medium hot green chili – 4 Nos.

     11)     Kashmiri chili powder – 4 tea spoons

     12)     Turmeric powder – 1 tea spoon

     13)     Black pepper powder – 2 tea spoons

     14)     Tender curry leaves – 3 sprigs

     15)     Coconut oil or any other cooking oil – to deep fry

     16)     Garam masala powder – 1 pinch

     17)     Salt to taste

Ingredients for soaking cauliflower:

     1)    Turmeric powder - 1 tea spoon

     2)    Vinegar – 50 ml.

     3)    Salt – 2 tea spoons

To cook:

          Put corn flour and refined flour with ½ tea spoon of salt into your mixer. Pour just enough water and blend to form a medium thick batter. Transfer to bowl and set aside.

          Remove the leaves and stem from the cauliflower and dice into 1 inch pieces. Take some water in a bowl and put in the soaking ingredients. Tip in the cauliflower pieces in this solution and keep for 20 minutes. This is solely to remove any dirt, small worms or insects and residual pesticides from the cauliflower. When the 20 minutes are up, wash the pieces thoroughly and drain.

          Peel the onions. Dice into pieces of 1 cm. size. Peel and finely chop the ginger. Cut open the capsicum and remove the core and the seeds. Pluck off the stems from the chilies. Cut the chilies into 2 pieces.

          Heat the oil. Whisk the batter to prevent the corn flour from sinking to the bottom. When the oil is hot, dip and roll the cauliflower pieces one by one in the batter and deep fry slowly on a medium heat.

          If you put them all together, they will form a sticky lump and you may not get them to crisp. When the tempura is crisp to the feel, lift out and drain the excess oil. Take care not to crowd the cauliflower pieces you fry in each batch. They should have enough space to roll freely in the oil.

          Once the frying process is over, take 100 ml of this fried cooking oil in a large pan. Sauté the onions, ginger, capsicum and chilies for two minutes. Turn down the heat and quickly add pepper powder, chili powder, turmeric powder and the two sauces. Pour in 200 ml. of water. Add 1 tea spoon of salt. Chuck in the fried cauliflower pieces and stir well on medium heat. Now, add the curry leaves and a pinch of garam masala powder. Check and adjust the seasoning. Turn off the heat.

          Your delicious gobi manjoori is now ready. Serve hot with bread, porottas, chappatis, rotis, naan or rice.

Enjoy!!!

Notes:

     1)    Eat while still fresh and hot. Leftovers may not taste that good.

     2)    The recipe given is for dry gobi manjoori. If you like gravy for dipping your food, use 300 to 400 ml. of water in place of the recommended 200 ml of water.

     3)    Care should be taken to see that the cooking procedure from the start of the sautéing of the vegetables is done quite quickly for the vegetables should not lose their freshness or crispiness.

     4)    Garlic is present in your home made tomato sauce. However, if you need more garlic flavor, crush and add a few garlic cloves when you sauté the onions.