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.