Vegetable Manchurian

Friday January 22nd, 2015 was awesome in the sense that I made my first ever best Chinese dish. Of course as mentioned in my previous posts, I made General Tso's and Chicken chow mein earlier. But for some reason I didn't think they were my perfect product.

I was supremely nervous initially given that I had to make vegetable balls and fry them in the oil. I previously had kind of not so decent experience with vegetable balls frying in the oil pan. When I was making vegetable cutlets a while back, my raw cutlet completely broke and broken vegetables completely ruined the whole oil. Not only my oil went wasted but I also had to make up for spoiled pieces of cutlet. Eventually I ended up frying them in the pan instead of deep frying.

For vegetable cutlets you need lots and lots of vegetables. This includes but not limited to carrot, cabbage, cauliflower, sprout beans and mushrooms. In addition to it you can also spin off your own choice of food. Make sure you have enough oil level in the pan, otherwise Manchurian pieces will get flat as soon as you drop them to fry.

Make sure to fry Manchurians twice. First fry them lightly only for few minutes. Then keep aside for a while, soak all the oil on paper towel and then drop them off in the oil for second time. Make sure the oil is kept on the medium-high setting and fry them for little more time than you did for the first time. This way Manchurian balls will become crispy.

I almost forgot to mention, but credits for ingredients and preparation for this delicious Chinese recipe go to Sanjeev Kapoor's Khana Khajana. Their YouTube video on How to make a Vegetable Manchurian was quite useful in my preparation

Time to setup including gathering all ingredients and chopping them into pieces is approximately 30 minutes. It also depends on home many vegetables you are planning to use. Total cooking time including double deep fry and making Manchurian chili sauce is around an hour.

I really loved the Manchurian I made. It reminded me of Manchurian I had from street vendor long time ago. Of course their sauce was more flowing and they also added some secret ingredients which gave it quite an intense taste in a good way. But I would always prefer home made hygienic food over street vendor food, though it is more tasty but much less hygienic.

Vegetable Manchurian I

Vegetable Manchurian II

P.S. I had call with my best friends (Yes, there are multiple!). They will be visiting my home over upcoming weekend. They specifically said they are here to taste my food. It's quite unbelievable for them that I started making food at home. It's going to be a big deal. I am planning to make at least 6 food items in 2 days. Wish me best luck. This is the first time I am going to prepare food for more than 2 people. I hope their trip and my culinary skills go well.