Indian-Manchurian Cauliflower: Gobi Manchurian

 "Gobi Manchurian" is a blending of Chinese and Indian cuisine and it's sort of a sweet and sour dish. It can be made relatively dry with fried cauliflower tossed in a relatively small amount of Manchurian chili sauce, a form that is often used as an appetizer. Or it can be made with much more sauce, which is termed "gravy" in India, and this form is often used as a main dish, which is served with rice and some type of flatbread so common in Indian cuisine. While both versions are good, I usually prefer the recipe with gravy, and so I tend to lean to having more gravy/sauce. This was only the second time I made this and I like it.

 

Ingredients:

 

For the fried cauliflower:

 

2 1/2 cups cauliflower florets

1 cup flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 teaspoon hot ground red pepper, if you want to cut the heat, use Kashmiri chili powder, which is very red, but not terribly hot, or 1/3 teaspoon ground red pepper and 2/3 teaspoon sweet paprika

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup water (perhaps a little more)

1/3 cup corn oil or sunflower oil

For the sauce:

 

3 tablespoons corn oil or sunflower oil

1 cup green onions/scallions, chopped (including green part)

1 1/2 inch piece ginger, grated

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 green chili peppers (jalapeno or serrano are good), chopped

2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

2/3 to 1 1/2 teaspoons ground red pepper (according to heat preference) 

1/2 cup thick ketchup

1 1/2 teaspoons rice vinegar (or white vinegar)

2 teaspoons sugar

2/3 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 cup water mixed with 2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/3 teaspoon salt

chopped green onions for garnish

 

Cut and rinse the cauliflower well in advance of preparing it; that way, it will have time to drain completely. It is actually good to take it and lay it out on some paper towels after rinsing it to let it dry. If you want the cauliflower to fry up crisply, you don't want any water on it. In a bowl, mix together the flour, cornstarch, ground red pepper (or one of the substitutes I've listed above), salt and 2/3 cup water. Mix well, breaking up any lumps until the batter is smooth. If the batter is too thick, add more water by the tablespoon and mix until the desired thickness is reached, which should be thick enough to cling to the cauliflower, but not so thick as to cover the cauliflower with thick breading. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Prepare in batches by adding the cauliflower to the batter a little at a time to coat it, then add the cauliflower to the skillet. Fry the cauliflower, turning the pieces often, until it is golden brown and crispy. Remove the fried cauliflower to a plate with paper towels on it, then add more cauliflower to the skillet, until all the cauliflower is fried. You can empty the oil from the skillet and wipe the skillet out or use a different skillet. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of fresh oil to the skillet. Heat the oil over medium heat, add the green onion, garlic, ginger, and green chilies, saute until softened. Add the soy sauce, ground red pepper, ketchup, vinegar, sugar and water/cornstarch mixture, well well. Bring the sauce to a simmer, then add the ground black pepper and salt, stir to mix in and cook until the sauce thickens somewhat (you don't want it to be too thick), then add the fried cauliflower and toss it in the sauce until all pieces are coated and reheated. Garnish each serving with chopped green onions (scallions).

 

 

  

 

Word History: 

Stound-In general this is an antiquated word for English, but it is still around poetically and in some dialect usage in Britain. "Stound" is related to "stand" and to "stow," words from the Germanic roots of English, to "statue," a Latin word borrowed by English from French, and to "status," a Latin word borrowed from that language. "Stound" goes back to Indo European "steh," which had the meaning "stand." This gave Old Germanic "stundo," meaning "a standing:" that is, "fixed point," and further, "a point in time," and this gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "stund," meaning "moment, point in time, period of time, an hour," and it then became "stounde," before "stound." The other Germanic languages have: German has "Stunde" (hour), Low German has "Stunn/Stünn" (hour), Dutch "stond" (hour, moment), Frisian once had "stunde," Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish all have "stund" (period, while, moment).