Blessy's Kitchen: Starters

Showing posts with label Starters. Show all posts

Veg Manchurian (Dry)/ Vegatable Manchurian/ Veg Manchuria

An Indo Chinese delicious veg starter, easy to make in our kitchens! A fried veggie ball coated with sweet, spicy and tangy sauce with the hint of ginger and garlic. Mmmm... It's ambrosial !! One could serve this as a starter or as a side dish with Fried rice or Noodles.

To Make This Recipe, You'll Need :

Chopped Cabbage	3 Cups
Chopped Capsicum	1 Cup
Grated Carrots	1 Cup
Chopped Ginger	½ Teaspoon
Chopped Garlic	½ Teaspoon
All-Purpose Flour (maida)	6 Tablespoons
Corn Flour/ Corn Starch	6 Tablespoons
Salt	1 Teaspoon (Or) To Taste
Pepper Powder	1 Teaspoon (Or) To Taste
Oil	To deep fry

To Make The Manchurian Sauce :

Chopped Green Chillies	1 Tablespoon
Chopped Ginger	1 ½ Teaspoon
Chopped Garlic	1 ½ Teaspoon
Onions	1 No (finely chopped)
Soy Sauce	1 Tablespoon
Tomato Sauce	2 Tablespoons
Red Chilli Sauce	2 Tablespoons
Green Chilli Sauce	2 Tablespoons
Vinegar (I used Apple Cider)	½ Teaspoon (No Pict below)
Salt	½ Teaspoon (or) To Taste
Pepper Powder	½ Teaspoon (or) To Taste
Oil	3 Tablespoons

Method :

1. Add the chopped cabbage, capsicum, grated carrots, chopped ginger and garlic, pepper, salt to a clean big bowl. Give everything a good mix. After mixing, the veggies will leave the water, now add the maida and cornflour and knead it into a dough. (You can adjust the flours according to the moisture content in your veggies. Make sure you add enough, not more so that flour doesn't dominate the veggies)

2. Now form small veggie balls.

3. Deep fry these balls in moderate oil until done.

To Make The Manchurian Sauce :

The further procedure is to be done on the high flame.

1. To a wok, add oil, when the oil gets hot, add chopped ginger - garlic, chopped green chillies. Fry until they are slightly cooked. Now add the chopped onions and cook further until translucent.

2. Now, add soy sauce, green chilli sauce, tomato ketchup, red chilli sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper. Reduce the flame and cook this sauce for about a minute. Add the fried veggie balls to the sauce and stir well to coat all the balls.

3. Switch off the flame and serve hot with spring onions as a garnish on top.

Enjoy!

Notes :
1. One can use the chopper or food processor for the veggies which give fine texture to the veggie balls. You may need to stir fry the veggie mixture first to eliminate excess moisture content and continue the same procedure.
2. Adding chopped ginger and garlic to the veggie ball mixture is optional.
3. If you want your balls to be crispy, double fry them and add the balls to the sauce just before serving them.

Thank You For Visiting Blessy's Kitchen :)

Honey Chilli Potatoes

Honey Chilli Potatoes is an Indo - Chinese dish. It is a sweet and spicy starter. The potato fingers are tossed in the flour, dipped in the batter, deep-fried and again tossed in different sauces. I tried this recipe following the instructions from Bharatz Kitchen . They were yum m!! Give it a try in your kitchen too. Treat your taste buds with a sweet-spicy yummy Potato dish!!! So, let's start making Honey Chilli Potatoes!!!

This recipe is divided into 3 parts.

So for the first part, you will need :

Potatoes	2
All Purpose Flour (Maida)	½ Cup
Corn Flour	¼ Cup
Salt	1/8 Teaspoon - No Picture
Oil	2 Tablespoons

And Salt ( No Picture)

Method :

Cut the Potatoes into thin potato fingers.
Now add the potatoes to the salty water and bring the potatoes to a slight boil or until the starch comes out of the potatoes. ( Total time 5 minutes)
Next, in a bowl combine the All-purpose flour, Cornflour, oil and salt. Give it a good mix and add the drained potato fingers to the flour.

First, part is done.

For the second part you will need the following ingredients :

All-Purpose Flour (Maida)	½ Cup
Corn Flour	¼ Cup
Salt	1/8 Teaspoon
Oil	2 Tablespoons + For deep Frying
Water	½ Cup ( Fill to the brim)

and Salt ( No Picture)

Method :

Combine all the ingredients, except oil which is for deep frying and make the batter out of it. Add the floured potato fingers to the batter.

** Do not overcrowd the batter with Potato fingers

After treating the potato fingers with the second coating, i.e the batter, deep fry them in the oil.

Frying the potatoes is the end of the second part.

For the third part you will need the following ingredients :

Oil	1 to 2 Tablespoons
Green Onions (or ) Red Onion	4 Green onion bulbs (or) ½ Red Onion Sliced
Bell Pepper / Capsicum	½ Sliced
Ginger	1 Teaspoon (chopped) – No Picture
Garlic	6 to 8 Cloves (chopped)
Honey	3 Tablespoons
Chilli Sauce	1 Teaspoon
Soy Sauce	2 Tablespoons
Tomato Ketchup	1 Teaspoon
Black pepper Powder	¼ Teaspoon
M.S.G / China Salt /Ajinomoto	1/8 Teaspoon
Corn Flour dissolved in water	1Teaspoons of flour + 1/2 cup of water
Sesame Seeds (Optional)	½ Teaspoon

And Ginger ( No Picture)

Method :

Begin by dissolving the cornflour in water.
Next, on a high flame add oil, followed by onions, ginger, garlic, bell peppers, black pepper powder, M.S.G, cornflour dissolved in water, all the sauces and cook it until the sauce reduces.
After the sauce gets reduced switch off the flame and add the honey.
Let the sauce cool down and add the final ingredient i.e fried potato fingers.
Garnish it with sesame seeds and greens.

And mix well.

*** Some people prefer to make Honey Chilli Potatoes by skipping the following procedures:
1. Adding potatoes to the salted hot water in the First part (instead they just soak the potatoes in water)
2. Skipping the second part completely and switching to the third part directly.
Well, yes you can skip. But, some prefer following the second part too which actually gives a different texture, crunchiness, coating to the potatoes.

So, it's up to you whether you want to follow the whole process or you want to skip. It's completely your choice.

Enjoy! :)

Tandoori Chicken

I've never met a person who dislikes Tandoori Chicken!!! Tandoori Chicken is a popular North Indian dish made with yogurt (curd) and spices. This dish was originated in Delhi. The fame of Tandoori Chicken led to other varieties such as Chicken Tikka, Regular Indian Chicken Skewers. Today for this recipe I'm using Amul Fresh Cream instead of using yogurt (curd). Use the thick cream, draining the liquids. Use liquid cream for any silky gravies like butter chicken or paneer butter masala. If you have hung yogurt then use it. Generally, Tandoori Chicken is made in a cylindrical clay oven which is called Tandoor and that is how this dish has got its name! Today, we are going to make this Tandoori chicken in the "Convection oven". It is very simple to make and tasty too. This dish is served all over India. So let's make the popular dish "Tandoori Chicken".

To Make This Recipe You Will Need :

Chicken (drumstick+thighs)

4 pieces (800grams)

There are Two marinades in the preparation of Tandoori Chicken.

So for the first marinade, you will need :

Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder	1 Tablespoon
Salt	to taste
Lemon/Lime Juice	1 (or) As required to make a paste of red chilli powder and salt.

For the second marinade you will need :

Amul Fresh Cream (Drain the liquid part of the cream and use thick cream)	4 Tablespoons
Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder	1 Tablespoon
Salt	½ Tablespoon (or) to taste
Black pepper powder	½ Teaspoon ( Omit it if you want milder Tandoori chicken
Kasuri methi (Dry fenugreek leaves Powder)	½ tsp ( No Picture)
Turmeric powder	less than ½ teaspoon
Garam Masala	½ teaspoon
Cumin Powder/ Jeera Powder	1 Tablespoon
Coriander Powder/Dhania Powder	1 teaspoon
Juice of lime or lemon	half
Red food color (optional)	pinch
Ginger- Garlic Paste	1 ½ Tablespoon (No Picture)
Mustard Oil**	1 Tablespoon to grease the chicken pieces

(I collected the thick cream, draining the liquid cream as you can see in the picture, a substitute for thick yogurt(curd))

You can also use Greek yogurt.

Ginger garlic paste, Red color (opt),Kasuri methi (No Pictures)

Method :

Begin by preparing the chicken. Put gashes for the flavour to penetrate.

Now, make the first marinade by simply mixing all the ingredients together and apply to the chicken, making sure that the marinade applied well into the gashes of the chicken pieces.

After the application, rest the chicken for 15 minutes.

Mean while, start preparing the second marinade by mixing all the ingredients except mustard oil.

After making the second marinade, apply the marinade to the chicken pieces, finally add mustard oil on the top to coat the chicken and rest it for 1 hour.

After resting the chicken, it's time to switch to the convection oven. Place aluminum foil below the grill stand in the oven, just to save time, cleaning the oven. Next, preheat your oven to

200 degrees C. After preheating, again set your oven to 200 degrees C, place the chicken on the oil greased grill, and roast the chicken for 25 minutes.

Keep an eye on your chicken while it is in the oven because all ovens are not the same. Some are fast and some are slow. Newly manufactured ovens cook food faster. Old ovens may take a longer time.