Chilly Fried Rice with Peanuts & Veggies

I prepared this chilly fried rice with inspirations from Chinese, Thai and Schezwan cuisine. Though the title boasts of many ingredients, this is a simple preparation.....hope you will try and enjoy this!

the recipe

Long grain cooked rice – to serve 8

Chopped or julienned vegetables

Cabbage – ½ cup

Carrot – 1 or 2

Celery – 3 stalks

Spring onion bulb – 4

Capsicum – 1

Onion – 1

Ginger paste – 1 tbsp

Garlic paste – 1 tbsp

Chilly flakes – 2 tsp

Soya sauce – 3 tbsp

Tomato sauce – 1, 2 or 3 tbsp

Sugar – 2 tsp

Salt – to taste

Veg Oil – 3 – 4 tbsp

Vegetable stock or water – ½ cup

Peanuts, roasted & slightly crushed – 5 tbsp

Spring onion shoot chopped – 4 shoots

the method

Heat oil in a wok or wide pan. Add the vegetables and onion and stir well in high heat. The vegetables should remain crispy and partially cooked. Add the crushed peanuts (Put the peanuts in a grinder jar and grind the roasted peanuts for 2-3 seconds). Stir for a while and add the ginger garlic paste. Stir till the raw smell is gone. Add the chilly flakes. Add soya sauce and sugar and stir briskly for 10 seconds. Add adequate salt for the vegetables & rice. Make space in the middle of the pan and pour the vegetable stock. Add the cooked rice in one shot. Mix all the ingredients. Add the tomato sauce. Toss the rice well. Sprinkle the spring onion shoot. Serve hot with tomato sauce or a side dish. We had this with Prawn Ball Curry (recipe to be posted soon).

Chilly Tomato (Chinese)

Just before posting this recipe, I googled to check whether there is any similar dish already. After the googling I just felt I should a clue to the title. Because there are many other chilly and tomato combinations that is not Chinese.

Chilli tomato is like a chilly gobi or a chilly chicken which is very suitable for a side dish. The inspiration to prepare this recipe is from the fast food joints in Kochi that serve chilly tomato with parotta….. We had this with chapathi.

the recipe

Tomato – 3

Capsicum – 1

Green chilly – ½ or 1 small

Onion – 1 big

Chilly powder – ½ tsp

Pepper powder – 1/8 tsp

Soya sauce – 1 ½ tbsp

Tomato sauce – 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Sugar – 2 pinch

Oil – 2 tbsp

Garlic – 4 cloves

Method

Cut the tomato into half. Scoop out the seed and flesh in the inside and keep it in a bowl..

Cut the tomato into cubes and place it in another bowl.

Cut the onion, capsicum and chilly into juliennes. Chop the garlic.

Heat oil in a pan and the garlic, followed by onion and green chillies. Saute for about a minute and add the capsicum and the scooped out tomatoes. Saute for a minute. Add salt and chilly powder. Add the cubed tomato. Turn to high heat and sauté till the tomatoes are just cooked. Pour the soya sauce and sauté briskly. Add sugar immediately. Stir for about 5 seconds and add the tomato sauce. Add the pepper powder. Turn off heat. Serve hot with fried rice, noodles or chapathi.

Chicken Manchurian

The era of Chilly Chicken almost ended in my kitchen when I started preparing Chicken Manchurian. It must be bcoz chilly chicken was very common and Manchurian was rare. The first manchurian trial took place around ten years back soon after I tasted it at Chiyang - the restaurant I have mentioned while writing about Mixed Noodles. It was a time when recipes could not be searched on web and I was neither a seasoned cook nor a seasoned web/ recipe searcher. Therefore, I tried it with whatever taste I could remember. I am writing this recipe after much research though it is the same as my first trial. I saw the use of tomato sauce in certain Manchurian recipes. It dint appeal to me so here is my Chicken Manchurian recipe with the taste as close to the Chiyang one.

ingredients to marinate the chicken

Chicken (boneless) - 300 - 400 gms

Corn flour (starch) - 3 tbsp

Flour (Maida) - 3 tbsp

Soy Sauce - 2 tbsp

Ginger Garlic paste - 1 1/2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Oil - to deep fry

ingredients for the tempering

Onion, finely chopped - 2

Garlic - 6 - 8 cloves (for garlicky taste add 8, for moderate one add 6)

Green chillies, finely chopped - 2-3

Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp

Soya sauce - 1 tbsp

Corn starch - 1 tbsp

Water - 1/4 - 1/2 cup

Oil - 2 tbsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

the method

Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. Add the ginger garlic paste, soya sauce and salt (please keep a check on the quantity of salt since soya is slightly salty). 

Mix the flour (maida) and corn starch powder well. Sprinkle half of the flour mix on the chicken. Turn the chicken pieces and sprinkle the balance flour mix. Mix the chicken pieces well and let it marinate for half an hour*. 

Heat oil in a pan. Deep fry the chicken in medium heat. 

Prepare corn starch solution using 1 tbsp corn flour and 1/4 cup water. If you need a saucy manchurian add 1/2 cup water to make the solution. Some home secrets - you can use the batter / flour left over from the chicken marinade to prepare the corn starch solution. This would be more tasty since the flour contains seasonings like soya sauce and ginger garlic paste. 

For the tempering, heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and stir in the onion, garlic and green chillies. When translucent, add soya sauce, salt and sugar. Stir well and add the corn starch solution. When it starts to boil, turn to low heat and add the fried chicken pieces. Mix well  and add pepper powder. Serve with fried rice or mixed noodles or as you please.

*Alternatively a thick batter can be prepared with the flour and the chicken pieces can be dipped into  it and fried. I prefer the non-batter method because the fried chicken is crispy and consumes less oil.

Chinese Mixed Noodles

Chinese food is very popular in our city as it is in our home. We frequent a Chinese restaurant and every time we either have a mixed noodles or a mixed rice which is a signature dish of the restaurant. After trying few of the Chinese restaurants in town, Chiyang seems to be the best place. The reason is many: i have not tasted ajino motto in their preparation, the portions are good, the ambiance is superb (in the air conditioned space) and the menu is reasonably priced.  The mixed noodles in the restaurant has chicken, beef, prawn, pork, eggs and an assortment of vegetables. In this recipe i have avoided beef and pork, yet it tasted very yummy.

the recipe

Hakka noodles - 400 gms

Ginger Garlic paste - 2 tbsp

Soya Sauce - 3 tbsp

Oil - 3 -4 tbsp

Chicken stock - 3/4 - 1 cup

Egg - 1 or 2

Sugar - 1 1/2 tsp

Spring onion, chopped - 2 tbsp

Pepper powder - 1/2 - 3/4 tsp

Salt to taste

ingredients to be sauted 

Capsicum, julienned - 1

Carrot, julienned - 2

Cabbage, julienned - 3/4 cup

Onion - 2 (cut into slight thick slices)

Celery, julienned - 3 stalks

Chicken, boiled & shredded - 3/4 cup

Boiled prawns - 3 -4 tbsp

Green chilly (optional), chopped - 1 or 2

the method

Beat the egg with required amount of salt and make an omelette. Cut it into thin strips / juliennes. 

Boil the noodles as per instruction. Add required amount of salt while boiling.

Heat 2-3 tbsp oil in a wok or a wide pan (uruli in Kerala) and add all the ingredients to be sauted. Add salt and stir briskly in high heat. When the vegetable are almost cooked but remains crunchy turn to low heat and make some space in the middle. Add a tbsp of oil and add the ginger garlic paste. Stir for a minute and then stir it along with the vegetables*. Turn to high heat, make space in the middle of the pan and add the soya sauce. Immediately add 1/2 tsp salt and 1 1/2 tsp sugar. When the sauce sizzles, mix all the vegetables. Add the cooked noodles. Pour the chicken stock 1/4  cup a time and mix with a fork and spoon on each hand. When the noodles reaches the preferred consistency stop using the stock. Add the egg and pepper powder. Garnish with spring onions and turn off heat. Serve with tomato sauce / ginger chicken / chicken manchurian / chillie chicken. 

*Ginger Garlic paste is added in the process of cooking to prevent it from burning in high heat. 

Ginger Chicken

It was just another weekend and time to prepare some meat dish. The usual ones are curried for the need of gravy. Settled down with a not so much gravy ginger chicken….

Ginger chicken is sometimes fried in batter and then sautéed in sauce. I prepared a slightly healthier version without the frying part.  Tastewise, it does not taste that gingery but still has a different flavour when compared to a chilly chicken. Can be had with chapatti or fried rice. 

the recipe

chicken – 500 gms

ingredients for the marinade

ginger juice – 2 tbsp

soya sauce – 1 tbsp

salt – ½ tsp

for the tempering

onion – 1 or 2

garlic – 6 cloves

ginger juliennes – 2 tbsp

soya sauce – 2 tbsp

tomato sauce – 1 tbsp

kashmiri chilly powder –  1 ½ - 2 tsp

salt to taste

spring onion – 2 plants ( i used only the green part)

oil – 2 tbsp

sugar – 1 pinch

pepper powder – ½ - ¾ tsp

the method

Marinate the chicken pieces for an hour with the ingredients for the marinade . Heat oil in a pan and sauté the chicken pieces till three fourth done. Drain it from the oil and water mixture. Heat oil in another pan or use the same pan and stir in the garlic and onion. When soft add ginger juliennes. Saute for about a minute and add the soy sauce and a pinch of sugar and salt. Add the sautéed chicken and mix well. Let it cook for about 2 minutes. Stir it and add the tomato sauce.  Check salt. Mix well and sprinkle the pepper powder and spring onion. Cook for a minute and serve hot as mentioned above. or as you please.