Vegetable Manchurian Gravy


A colleague at work who read about my review on the restaurant Spice Hut was surprised to know that there actually exists a cuisine called Indian-Chinese which is very popular in India. So to her benefit, and for all the others who savour Indian food, here's my Veg Manchurian Gravy which will leave you smacking your lips! It has most of the Indian spices, but the gravy is soy-sauce based, hence the name Indian-chinese:) This tastes best with the Chinese-style Fried Rice, and once you finish reading this post, hop on to that recipe to make a complete meal!! (photo courtesy Zeenews)

Ingredients
1 cup grated cabbage
1 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup cauliflower florettes - shredded
4-5 finely chopped French beans
1/4 cup finely chopped spring onions
1/4 cup finely chopped green capsicum
1/3 cup refined flour (maida)
2 large tbsp cornflour (to hold and bind the veggies)
1 egg - beaten
2 large tbsp soy sauce
1-2 tbsp vinegar
2-3 tbsp oil
Water - around 4 cups to make the gravy

Spices: 1/2 ginger and 5-6 garlic cloves,2-3 green chillies (all finely chopped)
1 tsp sugar,1/2 tsp msg (optional, salt- to taste

Method
Reserve the chopped greens of the spring onions for garnishing.

Mix all the veggies in a bowl, add the beaten egg, spring onion, capsicum, refined flour and one tbsp of cornflour. Add the salt for this mixture according to your taste (remember, the gravy will have salt too) and mix thoroughly. Take a spoonfull of this batter and shape into small balls. (Do NOT add water)

Now heat sufficient oil in a wok or pan and deep-fry vegetable balls, 3-4 at a time so they do not stick to each other, on medium heat until they turn golden brown.
Remove and keep them on a tissue paper to absorb excess oil.

Now heat 2 tbsp of oil again and add ginger-garlic and the green chillies. Then add soy sauce, sugar, MSG and salt to taste. Add 3 cups of water and bring to a boil.

Dissolve the cornflour in a cup of water and add slowly to the gravy. Also add the vinegar to it. Stir till the sauce starts to thicken. When it looks reasonably thick, remove from flame and keep aside.

Now add the fried manchurian balls and mix well. Garnish with spring onions and Serve hot with Veg Fried Rice !!

Tip: You can use bread crumbs instead of cornflour while making the veggie balls.


Note: MSG (Monosodium glutamate) enhances the flavour and is commonly used in chinese food preparations. But some people have reported allergic reactions to it. So unless you are sure you have eaten it before, you can safely omit it from the above recipe to avoid any allergies


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9 comments :

Tee said...

Indian-chinese rocks! great recipe!

TNL said...

this recipe is quite easy, will try your version with the egg and let you know.

cheers, trupti

Anonymous said...

whoa!! this is the best!! Indian-chinese rocks, and I love this with fried rice:)
your recipe looks perfect!
-Jignesh

Anonymous said...

hey mansi! I tried this and it came out great:) my family loved it! thanks so much for all your wonderful recipes!!

-Anita

Anonymous said...

This is my first recipe that I tried from your blog, and it came out very nice:) I'm going to try the paneer chilli next:)

-Sakshi

Anonymous said...

Wow, I am a big fan of Indian-chinese food and came across this site by chance. Very good site and thanks for giving all the details. I have bookmarked this page and will come again and try out new receipes.

What kind of sauce do you use generally ? (what brand)
thanks and keep up the good work.

Mansi said...

hi there! thanks for your kind words; I generally use Kikomino Soy sauce, but really it doesn't matter which brand you buy, as long as its fresh!

I'm glad you enjoyed the recipe. Be sure to check my Schezwuan Hakka Noodles recipe too!:)

Brocade Blue said...

For the Manchurian Gravy Recipe, vegetarians can omit the egg and replace it with Eno, this will surely make the batter "naik", I replaced the French beans with Sweet beans, the cabbage with leftover from lunch and I reduced the amount of salt for both the gravy and the fry-moulds. Also, for the gravy add kicap cair with the soya sauce, and if you want vege oyster sauce. Dash of black pepper powder, and chinese curry leaves, this will make the gravy smell and taste like a real Chinese gravy and the fried balls add the Indian taste to the Chinese gravy!

nupur said...

mansi u r just amazing. i am thankful i landed on this site.