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).    

Indian/Pakistani Cauliflower Curry: Gobi Masala

Gobi Masala is a north Indian and Pakistani curry dish, which simply means a dish made with a sauce of various spices. Just my opinion, but cauliflower is more to the bland side; thus, it needs some help in the flavor department. When I was a kid, cauliflower with various cheese sauces was a fairly common dish, and then there was breaded and fried cauliflower, which was served with some type of dipping sauce. Whether you agree with me that cauliflower in itself is a bit bland, it IS a healthy vegetable, with lots of nutrients and fiber. This dish is vegetarian, and, as with all good dishes, there are variations. For one thing, it is not uncommon for people of the Indian Subcontinent to make some dishes with a good deal of sauce ("gravy," as they say), but they also make a "drier" dish of the same name; that is, the amount of sauce is limited, with the main ingredients coated with the seasonings, rather than swimming in "gravy." It is great with rice, with which it is often served in India and Pakistan, but it is also commonly served with chapati (roti) bread,* especially if there is a lot of sauce to be sopped up by the bread. If you don't like much "heat," use just one jalapeño pepper; on the other hand, if you like dishes that are very "hot," use 3 serrano chilies. For a little information on the spices and herbs used in the cooking of the Indian Subcontinent, here are two links: 1)   https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/12/great-spices-and-herbs-of-india.html     

2)  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/12/great-spices-and-herbs-of-india_10.html

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 green chili peppers, chopped (serrano or jalapeño chilies are great)
2 inch piece ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoons oil (+ more, if needed, vegetable oil is fine)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek
2/3 teaspoon garam masala 
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or Indian red chili powder)
1 cup diced tomato with juice
1/4 to 1/2 cup water

Add the oil to a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, green chilies and ginger, cook an additional 1 to 2 minutes. Add the turmeric, ground coriander, fenugreek, garam masala and cayenne pepper, stir to mix well, then add the tomatoes and stir further. Add the cauliflower and 1/2 cup water. Stir to mix again to make sure all of the cauliflower is coated with the seasonings, then cover the skillet with a lid or foil. Cook until the cauliflower is tender (likely about 10 to 12 minutes), remove the lid or foil, and if necessary, cook a few minutes to allow the sauce to cook down (thicken) a bit.    

* Chapati (roti) bread is an unleavened whole wheat flatbread. It is quite easy to make and this is the link: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/10/easy-flatbread-of-indian-subcontinent.html 

Click on photo to enlarge...

WORD HISTORY:

Floret-This word is not only closely related to "flower" and "flour" (both of which are really the same word, and of Latin derivation and borrowed by English from Latin-based French), but "floret" was borrowed from Old French "florete" ("little/small flower") in the late 1300s. The Old French form was the diminutive of "flor," which meant "flower." ^

^  For the history of "flour/flower;" and thus, to the base of "floret," this is the link to the article with the "Word History:" http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/10/egg-in-your-beer-eierbier.html