Indo-Chinese recipes...

Capsicum rice noodles :::

Whenever I marinate chicken for grilling with Indian spices and after taking out chicken pieces I keep left-out marination for either noodles or fried rice. My son wanted some noodles with grilled chicken and here is another delicious and easy preparation of Indo-Chinese cuisine.
Ingredients :::
one small packet of rice noodles,
one medium size capsicum / bell pepper, sliced
one small size onion, sliced
4 tsp marinated spices from grilled chicken,
1/2 tsp soy sauce,
salt to taste,
oil to fry.
Method:::
1. Boil water adding little salt and oil in a big vessel.Once boiling,take off from heat and add broken rice noodles and cover the pan for 10 mins and then drain excess water. Keep aside.
2. Heat oil in the pan, add sliced onions and capsicum and fry on medium flame for 2-3 mins.
3. Add marinated spices and soy sauce to the vegetables and mix nicely and fry for 4-5 mins or until raw smell goes off.
4. Add steamed noodles and stir continuously to mix everything on medium-high and serve hot.
The spices I have used for marination are, coriander powder, black pepper powder,red chilli powder,lemon juice,a pinch of turmeric powder and ginger-garlic paste with 1 tbsp of oil. You can use other noodles too even maggie noodles. Cook noodles of your choice according to the instructions.

Vegetable Manchurian :::

I was planning to prepare this for long time but never happened . But when I had to decide what to prepare for starter for my friend's baby shower, I wanted to prepare what she preferred. This is one of ever popular Indo-Chinese appetizer what you can prepare as dry or wet preparation. This is very easy preparation with tangy spicy flavor of soy and chilli sauce and nice aroma of crushed garlic and goes very well with hot Chinese fried rice or noodles. I followed vah re veh recipe and modified according to my comfort level.

Ingredients :::
3 cups of lettuce or cabbage, shredded
1 cup of carrots, shredded
1 cup of beans, finely chopped
1 cup of cauliflower florets,finely chopped
4-5 tbsp maida or all purpose flour,
1 tbsp corn flour and rice flour each,
1 tsp garlic powder,
1 tsp black pepper powder,
1 tbsp soy sauce and chilli sauce each,
salt to taste,
oil to fry.
For Seasoning:::
one cup of scallions / green onions, finely chopped
2-3 nos. garlic cloves, minced
1" ginger, grated or finely chopped
3 nos. green chillies, slit lengthwise,
2 tbsp soy sauce,
1 green chilli sauce,
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar,
a pinch of sugar,
2 tsp oil,
one cup coarsely chopped spring onions.

Method :::
1. Take all the vegetables in a big plate and add chilli sauce,soy sauce, salt and oil. Mix everything thoroughly. Sprinkle rice flour,corn flour, all purpose flour / maida, garlic powder, pepper powder and oil. Mix everything to make a coarse dough so that you can make balls. If needed, sprinkle some maida but very little. Keep aside for 5 mins. Make small size balls from the mixture.
2. Heat sufficient oil and fry all the vegetable balls on medium flame until it becomes golden brown color. Fry 2-4 balls at a time and then keep them on paper napkin to absorb extra oil.
3.Once done, heat 2 tbsp oil in a frying pan, add  a pinch of sugar and then add minced garlic and ginger and saute for half an minute. Now add finely chopped green onions and green chillies and saute for another half a minute on medium flame.
4. Add soy sauce, chilli sauce and rice wine vinegar to the pan and let it fry for 2 minutes stirring continuously. Sprinkle little salt here.
5. Once bubble starts coming out, add vegetable balls to the pan and start swirling the pan so that the balls get evenly coated with the sauce. Let it fry for 2-3 mins and sprinkle one cup of chopped spring onions and serve hot.
Be careful with adding salt as soy sauce, vinegar and chilli sauce have salt too. You can add chilli tomato sauce to the step 4. And instead of adding rice flour, one handful of cooked rice can also be added while mixing ingredients to the shredded vegetables and I added shredded lettuce as I dint have cabbage that time and it worked well.

 Vegetable Chowmein :::

Vegetable Chowmein or noodles in Indian style is one of best food for youngsters in India specially in North-Eastern part of India. l become nostalgic whenever I think of this dish. My father used to wait until I finish preparing chowmein without saying a word and he used to appreciate so much however the taste came. We used to hang out after college at those roadside restaurants with friends a lot. After coming here in USA, I came to know that noodles what Chinese people prepare is completely different than this preparation. Almost every week I prepare this either for breakfast or dinner . I have no idea what is the authentic way to prepare this but before leaving India I collected this recipe from one of my friend who had restaurant in Assam.

Ingredients :::

one packet vegetable Hakka noodles,

one small medium onion, finely sliced

one big cup of mixed vegetables, cleaned and diced,

1 tsp dark soy sauce,

1 tsp green chili sauce,

1/2 tsp rice vinegar,
1 tsp hot chilli tomato sauce,
salt to taste,
oil to fry.

Method:::

1. Take plenty of water in a big pan adding a pinch of salt and few drops of oil and let it boil.Once done, switch off the flame and add noodles and cover with a lid for 7-8 mins or until down. Now drain the water from noodles and spread cooked noodles on a strainer to take out excess water or you can spread on a plate for minimum one hour.
2. In the mean time, heat oil in a wok or kadai, add sliced onions and saute for half a min. Now add all the chopped vegetables and sprinkle salt and fry on high flame until almost done stirring continuously.
3. Once vegetables are almost done, add soy sauce,chili sauce and vinegar one by one and mix thoroughly. Keep the flame or electric heat on higher side and stir continuously.
4. Now add cooked and dried noodles and mix with vegetables thoroughly and let it cook for one to two minutes and then sprinkle hot chilli tomato sauce. Switch off flame and serve hot.
Now I use potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, beans, capsicum and big diced leaves of cabbage and corn sometimes. But you can use what vegetable you want and scrambled egg also can be used along with vegetables. If you don't want too spicy then use only tomato sauce instead of hot chilli tomato sauce. I used to sprinkle ajinamoto before serving but nowadays it is advised not to use MSG so I stopping using the same.
 

Noodles with spicy shrimp ::

I wanted to prepare something special for Friday night dinner and I didn't do shopping. So whatever was there in my pantry I just tried to use for this preparation. It came very good and luckily, I wrote down the ingredients and prepare couple of times and every time this dish came very good. This is one of the complete dinner what you would like to try. 

Ingredients:::
10-12 nos. medium size shrimp,cleaned and de-veined,
one packet of Chinese noodles, 
one small onion,finely sliced,
half packet of chicken broth,
one cup of frozen peas,
2 tbsp of tomato sauce,
a pinch of black pepper powder,
1 tbsp chilli garlic sauce,
fresh chopped parsley,
2 tsp shredded cheese,
a pinch of red chilli powder,
salt to taste and olive oil to fry.

Method:::
1. Cook the noodles as per instructions and drain and keep aside.
2. Heat oil in skillet or frying pan, fry shrimps or prawns with turmeric power,a pinch of red chilli powder and salt. When shrimps becomes yellow red in color, take out and keep aside.
3. Now in the same oil, add sliced onions and peas and fry for a minute adding salt and black pepper powder.Add tomato sauce and chilli garlic sauce and stir continuously for half a minute. 
4. When the water little dried, add chicken broth and allow to boil once. 
5. Now make some space in the center of the frying pan, add fried shrimp and parsley. Let it fry for a half a minute and then add noodles and toss altogether sprinkling shredded cheese.Adjust salt and serve hot with a nice glass of wine.
You can substitute shrimp with leftover shrimp,chicken or white chunks of chicken or any canned fish too. While cooking noodles,I generally add salt and little oil too.


Hot n Sour Soup :::

 

Whenever we go to any Chinese restaurant, the first thing I order is this soup. I wanted to try this soup at home for long time but didn't get any good recipe. At last I tried my own and it came really well. I followed Vahrevah chef's recipe with little modifications. Try this simple yet yummy soup for Chinese food lovers and kids specially love this too. 

Ingredients :::
One cup chicken stock,
2 tbsp soy sauce,
1 tbsp rice vinegar,
2 tbsp chilli sauce,
1/4 tbsp ajinamoto,
one cup of small cubed mixed vegetables,
2 -3 nos finely sliced mushrooms,
1/4 tbsp white pepper powder,
half inch cleaned and finely sliced ginger,
2 no. egg beaten,
2 tbsp corn flour,
salt and 1 tbsp oil.

Method :::
1. Heat a big deep bottomed pan or soup pot, add chicken stock,soy sauce,rice vinegar,chilli sauce and pepper powder and mix well.
2. Now add salt and sugar and vegetables and keep stirring slowly for 4-5 mins.Add mushrooms.
3. Once starts boiling add oil and ginger. Remove the froth what comes up while boiling the soup.
4. When vegetables are cooked then adjust the salt. and mix corn flour with water till lumps disappears.
5. Add slowly while stirring the soup and let it boil on slow flame and keep on removing excess froth or it will taste very bad.
6. At last, very slowly add beaten egg while stirring the soup continuously. Serve hot garnishing with spring onions.

Vegetables I use are carrots,broccoli,beans,snow peas and peas. You can use small cubed tofu too. Be careful with salt as soy sauce,chilli sauce and vinegar have salt too. If you need more thickness, then add more corn flour mixed with warm water.

 Chilli Chicken :::

This is one of my family's favorite dishes and I love to make it on Friday nights with Chinese hakka noodles or sometimes as starters. Manchurian and chilli chicken recipes are very much similar. I followed Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe but again with my own variations and that I m sharing with you.

Ingredients:::

6-8 small pieces of boneless chicken,

2 nos. big green bell pepper,

1 no. big onion,

1 medium size tomato(optional),

4-5 nos. garlic cloves,

4-5 nos. green chillies, slit lengthwise,

2 tbsp dark soy sauce,

2 tbsp red chilli sauce,

1/2 tbsp ajinamoto(optional),
2 tbsp rice vinegar,
half cup chicken stock,
3 tbsp corn flour,

salt to taste,
half cup finely chopped spring onions,

oil to fry.

For Marination :::

3 tbsp all purpose flour or Maida,

1 tbsp crushed black pepper,

1/2 tbsp green chilli sauce,

1/4 tbsp salt,

1 no. egg,

1 tbsp corn flour.

Method :::

1. Wash and pat dry all the chicken pieces. Then mix all the ingredients for marination and then mix nicely with chicken pieces. Keep aside for 15 mins and then deep fry all the pieces until golden brown in color and spread over paper napkin.
2. Cut the bell pepper, tomato and onion into medium size cubes. Make a coarse paste of garlic cloves.
3. Now heat 3 tbsp of oil in a wok /  kadai, saute garlic paste and then add green chillies and saute for half minute.
4. Now add bell pepper and onion cubes and fry nicely for 2 mins on high flame. Keep stirring to avoid burning. Add tomatoes  and keep stirring until nicely cooked.
5. Add soy sauce and mix nicely and then add other sauces. Keep stirring.
6. Now add fried chicken pieces and rice vinegar. Mix thoroughly everything on high heat and stir fry for 3 mins.
7. Mix corn flour with chicken stock without leaving any lumps and then sprinkle over chicken pieces.Adjust salt.
8. When done, sprinkle ajinamoto and chopped spring onions and serve hot.

I generally prepare this dish very spicy but if you want not so spicy then do not add green chillies and less black pepper and adjust red chilli sauce. Here I use chilli garlic sauce and every sauce you will get any Indian store or supermarkets.If you need little gravy then add more corn flour with chicken stock and then add to it. Sometime I use wine instead of rice vinegar for nice flavour and taste but strictly not when your kids are also having the same dish.


Chicken Manchurian:::

Whenever I used to go any Chinese restaurant in India with my college friends, chicken Manchurian is one of dishes which we never forgot to order. I just love the tangy yet spicy flavor with Chinese veg.fried rice. Last week, I wanted to have some Chinese food outside but didn't happen so thought of trying my hand on this dish and it came very well. I actually surfed the internet and mixing up couple of recipes ,prepared this dish.

Ingredients :::
1/2 kg or 1lb boneless chicken breasts,
1 big green bell pepper / capsicum, cut into 1 inch diagonally,
1 big onion, cut into 1 inch diagonally,
4-5 nos green chillies, slit lengthwise,
2 cloves garlic finely chopped,
1 no. whole dry red chilli,
2 tsp soy sauce,
1 tsp chilli garlic sauce,
1 tsp white rice vinegar / white wine,
salt as per your taste,
1/2 tsp ajinomoto (optional),
half cup finely chopped spring onions,
1 tsp tomato sauce,
oil to fry.

for marination:::
1 cup all purpose flour or Maida,
1/4 cup cornflour,
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste,
1 tsp green chilli paste,
1 tsp red chilli powder,
1/3 tsp salt.

Method:::
1. Wash and cut the chicken pieces into half inch cubes and pat dry.
2. In big mixing bowl,take all ingredients for marination and mix nicely with blender or hand for 4-5mins. Now add water slowly and prepare a nice smooth thick batter. Keep for 5mins.
3. Add all the chicken pieces into the batter and keep marinated for one hour.
4. Heat sufficient oil in a frying pan, deep fry battered chicken pieces 4-5 nos. at a time. Strain extra oil and keep on a paper napkin. Repeat the process for all chicken pieces.
5. Now heat 2 tsp oil in a skillet / kadai, add chopped garlic and dry red chilly and saute for one mins and then add diced onion,green chillies and bell peppers and fry for 3-4 mins or until onion becomes transparent. Now add soy sauce and chilly garlic sauce together and mix thoroughly on high flame. Stir continuously to avoid sticking at the bottom.
6. After mixing sauce , add vinegar / white wine and ajinomoto and then tomato sauce and mix thoroughly for 2-3 mins.
7. Adjust salt now and then add fried chicken pieces and slowly mix with the sauce to make a nice coat and cook for 4-5mins on high flame. When done, sprinkle finely chopped spring onions and serve hot.

If you need gravy then mix one cup corn flour with warm water nicely to avoid lumps and then add after mixing chicken pieces.

Szechuan Chicken ::::

Recipe I:

This Chinese preparation is such a delight that my husband and me just love to have it whenever we go to Chinese buffet. This dish has perfect balance of sweet and spicy taste and lots of vegetables. Szechuan chicken recipe gets its taste and flavor from the sauce Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce and also dry sherry or rice wine and all of them you can get it any Chinese or big supermarket. I surfed internet again and got this recipe from food network website and modified a little to prepare.

Ingredients:::

3 boneless & skinless chicken breasts,cut into 1" pieces,

2 no. eggs,

2 tsp cornflour or cornstarch,

2 tsp cooking wine,

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce,

1 tsp soy sauce,

2 tsp Tabasco sauce,

1/2 tsp red chilly powder or cayenne pepper powder,

2 nos. dry red chilly whole or crushed,

2 inch finely chopped ginger,

2 cloves finely chopped garlic,

2 nos. big carrots ,cut lengthwise thin,

one cup diced red and green bell peppers / capsicum,

1 no.small onion,diced,

half cup chopped spring onions,

oil to fry,

salt as per taste,

Method:

1. Wash and pat dry with paper napkin. Mix egg whites with corn flour and dip the chicken pieces into the mixture and keep aside for some time.

2.Take a big bowl,mix all the sauces nicely and then keep aside.

3. Heat 2 tsp oil in a kadai /skillet, add finely chopped garlic and saute for one min and then add all the chicken pieces until cooked. Remove chicken pieces and place on paper napkin to absorb extra oil.

4. Heat 2 tsp oil in the same kadai / skillet, add bell peppers and carrots and saute for 3-4 mins. Now set aside all the vegetables in the skillet and add the sauce and let it boil nicely on high flame and add chicken pieces to the skillet.

5. Mix vegetables and chicken pieces with the sauce and stir continuously for 2-3 mins on high flame. When done sprinkle spring onions and serve hot with rice.

Be very careful while cooking on high flame as there is chance of sticking or burning. You can use other vegetables also like french beans and broccoli and dry fruits like, almonds and walnuts and then bamboo shoots too.