Mushroom Manchurian

During my school days “Fried Rice” and “Chilli Chicken” were the most happening food. No dine outs were complete without this. After my brother got his first job, he used to take me and our cousins for dinner sometime. I still remember he getting angry at us for ordering the same thing from the menu (actually we didnt need the menu, our choice was already made) all the time. He tried his best to make us try something new, apart from our usual combo of Fried Rice and Chilli Chicken. Sadly all his efforts failed, after all it's kinda impossible to convince teenage girls, once their mind is made up, right ;)??

Though I've come a long way from those days, I still have a soft corner for Indo Chinese dishes. I guess, I'm not alone in this. I've seen that most of our friends also share the same feeling. A recent dine out with friends was a testimony to this.

We went for a dinner buffet and the spread was mainly non vegetarian. One of our friends is a vegetarian and when we pointed out the absence of any veg main dishes, the staff were happy to make some veg dishes, specially for our table. Mushroom manchurain was one of the items they made. It looked very appetising and a few of us started digging into it pretty soon. Some of the hard core non vegetarians were a bit hesitant initially, but after trying it, there was no turning away.

I buy Mushroom regularly, but I tend to make stir fry often. Jose keeps complaining about it all the time and once he tasted the restaurant Mushroom manchurian, he was like “see there are other ways also to cook mushroom, if in case you didn't know” . He kept bugging me about it and finally I decided to keep his mouth shut ;) I did some searching online and landed on this wonderful recipe at Bharathy's blog. I completely agree with her statement on the blog, that she is an expert in making manchurian dishes!

It's a perfect Indo Chinese recipe and trust me it will be a hit with both veg and non veg people. This is a great dish to make if you have vegetarian guests. I had a hard time taking pics of it, I just wanted to finish taking pics, so that I could dive into it ;) Hope you'll also enjoy this dish.

Here you go…

Prepare the batter with the ingredients listed, thick, which resembles dosa/idly batter, in a wide vessel. Dump the sliced mushrooms into the batter and mix well…

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Drop small bite sized pieces into hot oil and deep fry until browned, as batches. Keep aside…

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In a broad and wide wok, heat 2 tbsp oil and sauté the onion and capsicum for a couple of minutes. The onions and bell pepper should retain its crispiness and do not let them turn brown.They need to be just translucent. Add minced ginger and garlic and cook for 2-3 mins…

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Add the red chilly powder, soy and chilly sauces along with pepper powder in high flame and mix continuously for a few seconds. Take the dish from the stove at this stage after adding the fried mushrooms…

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Mix it well  allowing the sauces and spices to seep in and did not add any water as I needed the dry version. Garnish with spring onion…

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Recipe from here

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Mushroom Manchurian

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Course: Appetiser, Side Dish, Starter

Cuisine: Indo Chinese

Servings: 4 -6

Author: Maria Jose Martin

Ingredients

• ▢ 250 gms Button mushrooms

For the batter:

• ▢ 3/4 cup Plain flour (maida )
• ▢ 1/4 cup Cornflour
• ▢ 1/2 tsp Red chilly powder
• ▢ 2 Shallots/small onions (crushed )
• ▢ 1 tsp Minced garlic
• ▢ Salt
• ▢ Water – to make a thick batter (I used 1/2 cup minus 1 tbsp)
• ▢ Oil (to deep fry)

Final Mix up:

• ▢ 2 tbsp Oil
• ▢ 1/2 tbsp Crushed/minced ginger and garlic (each)
• ▢ 1 medium Capsicum (cubed)
• ▢ 1 big Onion (cubed)
• ▢ 2 tbsp Dark soy sauce
• ▢ 1 tbsp Green chilly sauce
• ▢ 1/2 tsp Red chilly powder
• ▢ 1/4 tsp Pepper powder
• ▢ Salt- to taste (be careful, the sauces contain salt, refer notes)
• ▢ Spring onion (to garnish)

Instructions

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  Wash and slice the mushrooms thin and long.
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  Prepare the batter with the ingredients listed, thick, which resembles dosa/idly batter, in a wide vessel.
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  Dump the sliced mushrooms into the batter and mix well. Drop small bite sized pieces into hot oil and deep fry until browned, as batches. Keep aside.
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  Now for the mixing up part; in a broad and wide wok, heat 2 tbsp oil and sauté the onion and capsicum for a couple of minutes. The onions and bell pepper should retain its crispiness and do not let them turn brown.They need to be just translucent. Add minced ginger and garlic and cook for 2-3 mins.
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  Now add the red chilly powder, soy and chilly sauces along with pepper powder in high flame and mix continuously for a few seconds. Add the fried mushrooms and take the dish off the stove.
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  Mix it well, allowing the sauces and spices to seep in and did not add any water as I needed the dry version. Served hot garnished with scallions (spring onion greens).
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  If you prefer a semi dry version;
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  Add ½ cup of water at the end of stage 5 above along with the fried and cooled mushroom chunks.
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  Sauté again for 3-4 minutes to absorb excess water of any and switch off fire when it is semi dry/ saucy consistency has reached. Let the pieces be ‘a li'l crisp' and not soggy at this stage.Garnish with scallions and serve hot with Indochinese fried rice or noodles.
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  If you like the gravy version of the same, add some more water, say 1/2 – 3/4 cup more and make it thick by adding a tsp cornflour while you bring it to boil. Simmer for a few minutes and serve hot. Again, see to it that you add a little extra amounts of the sauces and spices as the water dilutes the final taste of the gravy version.

Notes

I didnt add salt with onion and capsicum.

The mushrooms are crisp if you serve it within half an hour to 1 hour. Next time, I'm planning to make the batter with half plain flour and rice flour and corn flour to retain the crispiness for a longer time.

Tried this recipe? Let others know by…mentioning @mariasmenu or tagging #mariasmenu

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