Gobi Manchurian

Jr. H was down with illness whole last week and that made me down emotionally.  All was well until last Saturday evening where he was noticed with sudden spike in temperature.  At first, I thought this could be a normal fever and gave him an initial dose of paracetamol but that didn't worked out.  I continued to observe him whole night and gave him cold compresses when his fever went over 103.  On Sunday, he complained of severe throat pain along with fever.  Last Sunday, DH had invited his friend's family for lunch and could not avoid it, so I was juggling between taking care of son and attending guests and cooking for them.  As his regular pediatrician was not available, we took him to another pediatrician who was nearby and she started him on antibiotics on Monday.  All of a sudden, the home was all quiet and not filled with his nonsense laughter and nagging, Jr. H was calm and sitting in one place, not eating anything, and looked very dull.  More than him, I was feeling ill to see him as such.  From Friday, he is better but due to the effects of antibiotics, he had severe stomach upset and not eating anything at all and I was very worried about it.  So yesterday, I prepared his favorite dish to tantalize his taste buds and make him eat something.

Quickly touching upon the recipe, Gobi is my all my time favorite vegetable from childhood and mom prepares as a curry mostly.  I learnt this recipe only after Jr. H started taking lunch to schools where he requested me to prepare this at home seeing his friends lunch boxes.

Gobi Manchurian is nothing but fried Cauliflower florets are tossed with sauces and pepper powder and goes well with fried rice or just as a starter.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower (cut in big florets) - 1 medium size

Spring onion

Capsicum - 1

Garlic pods - few

Soya sauce - 2 tsp

Red chilly/Paprica sauce - 3 tsp

Pepper powder - 2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Oil - As needed

For the batter

Corn flour - 1 cup

All purpose flour - 3/4 cup

a pinch of cooking soda

Salt - to taste

Preparing the Gobi florets:

Boil water with salt and put the florets in salt water for 10 minutes.  Drain the water and pat dry the florets.

Making the batter and frying the florets

1. Mix Corn flour, All purpose flour, a pinch of cooking soda, and salt. Add little water and prepare the batter.

2. Heat oil in heavy bottomed pan, dip the florets in batter, and deep fry in hot oil.  Keep aside.

Making the Manjurian with sauces:

In a pan, add oil, when it is hot add the white part of spring oil, finely chopped garlic pods, and later thin sliced capsicum.  Add salt and when translucent, add the pepper powder, soya sauce, chilly sauce, mix well.  Later add the fried florets and mix evenly.

Gobi Manchurian is ready to be served.  This can be taken as an appetizer or as a side dish for fried rice. We had with vegetable fried rice.

VEGETABLE BONDA - A LIP SMACKING SNACK FOR WEEKEND

As I lay on bed on the early morning hours of a weekend, I couldn't allow my mind to calm down due to multifarious reasons.   So I thought I could divert myself to blogging.

Last few weeks, DH and myself were fully on thoughts to move out Jr. H to a new school and were doing lot of background research on it.  Getting admission on schools isn't easy here and especially for the higher classes.  Finally after much effort, after repeated trips, we got an admission in an upcoming new school with good reviews and admitted him there.  Jr. H had two rounds of interaction before he was admitted.  Now a lot of follow up activities needs to be taken care such as school uniforms, transport, books etc.,  Jr. H is in mixed reaction now; he feels sad for leaving his old friends and at the same time he is quite excited to join the new environment.  I am kind of slightly concerned about the settling process in the new environment.  He need to unlearn and learn many new things to accommodate the new environment, get some good friends, get some recognition among teachers and many more things following to that.  Let's see how it goes.  As a first step at home, I make him feel  comfort from a parent end and provide him as much as support.

Jumping on quickly about today's post, Vegetable Bonda, this is a popular lip smacking tea time South Indian snack made with different variations - can be stuffed with just potatoes or with mixed vegetables.  Every mother is brilliant to sneak in veggies on kids favorite dish and I'm no different in it.  I made this mixed vegetable bonda on a casual evening on a weekend and in no time the bonda's were finished by DH and Jr. H.  

Ingredients:

Mixed vegetables (Beets, carrots, Beans, Green peas) - 2 cups

Boiled potato - 2

Onion - 2

Chilly powder - 1 tsp

Tempering items:

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Urad dhal - 1 tsp

Green chilly - 3

Curry leaves - few

For the batter:

Besan/ bengal gram flour - 1/2 cup
Rice flour - 1/4 cup
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Cooking soda (soda bi carb)- a pinch
Salt to taste

Preparation:

1. Pressure cook potatoes and mash it slightly.  Meanwhile cut the vegetables into tiny cubes, throw in some green peas, and pressure for 3 whistles with salt and little water and mash it as well.

2.  Heat a pan, add oil, and throw in the tempering items one by one.  When the mustard seeds sizzles, throw in urad dhal and curry leaves, and later add the mashed boiled veggies and potato.   Add red chilly powder, required salt (if necessary) and saute for few minutes and switch off the flame.  After it cools down, make a even sized round balls and keep it ready (see picture below). 

3.  Finally the preparation of the batter by mixing besan, rice flour, red chilly powder with a pinch of cooking soda.  Add water and make a slightly thick batter. Heat oil in pan, dip the vegetables balls in the batter and make sure it is well coated on all sides, and gently drop the balls in hot oil and fry the bondas until they turn golden brown. Repeat the same with remaining vegetable balls. 

 

Yummulicious vegetable bondas are ready to be 

served to your loved ones.