Tempura Vegetables with Chinese Sauce

Ingredients:

Vegetables: Radish, Baby Carrots,Paneer,Cauliflower,

1/2 cup of dry corn starch

For the sauce:

4-5 tablespoons of corn starch

4-5 tablespoons of soy sauce

4 tablespoons of red/green chili sauce or as per your taste. I use more. Short cut option would be to use Sriracha Sauce available in all stores.

2 table spoons of crushed garlic

Water, salt to taste. This being a chinese sauce, I like it spicy and I use all the above ingredients generously.

Method:

Cut the paneer and radish into chunks of 2 inches long. They should be about same size as baby carrots.

Cauliflowers into medium florets..

Roll all the vegetables into the dry corn starch generously and fry them until crisp, about a min or less. Keep aside uncovered.

Make the sauce.

In a wok, take some oil, saute the garlic, add soy sauce and chili sauce.

Mix the corn starch and water into a smooth liquid,not too thin.

Add it to the wok and simmer until the sauce is lump free and thick. Add salt.

Arrange the vegetables on the serving platter and pour the sauce over them, garnish with green onions if you want to and SERVE IMMEDIATELY.

THE MISTAKES I MADE THE FIRST TIME …….

Iblanched all the vegetables which I should not have. The veggies got soggy.

I served the dish much later after cooking which again made it into an ordinary manchurian type of dish which this is not meant to be. The fun is in the crispness of the veggies.

Serve it immediately while the veggies are crispy

Aditi Sheth

Spicy Peas-Coriander-Paneer stuffed Aloo Tikkis

Ingredients:

3 med potatoes

1 cup green peas boiled  And drained.
3/4 cup roughly chopped coriander

1/4 cup grated paneer
Few cubes of pineapple.
1/2 cup besan or gram flour for batter
1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
1 full teaspoon Garam masala
1 full teaspoon — red chili powder, turmeric, chaat masala,coriander powder for peas mix and some more of each for potato mix.

Salt to taste
Oil for sautéing and deep frying….Method:

Mash the boiled potatoes , season with salt, red chili powder. Keep aside.
In a sauté pan take some oil, add the boiled peas, coriander and all dry masalas and mix well, sauté for few minutes.
There is distinct taste of Garam masala and spiciness from red chilis so be generous with it. Keep aside.

In your palms take some potato mix, make a ball and flatten it out.
In the center add a big dollop of peas mix, put a small pinch of paneer and then top it with  a piece of pineapple In the center and fold everything into a round ball or oblong shape, whatever works.

Refrigerate the tikkis for a half an hour so it firms up, incase your potatoes are over cooked or the mix is n

ot stiff enough.

For the batter:

add salt,red chili powder to the flour, add water cautiously to the gram flour so to make smooth thick batter.
Dip each tikki into the gram flour batter completely and roll them on the bread crumbs coating each with a thick layer of crumbs.
Deep fry the tikkis and keep them uncovered. These tikkis stay super crisp for long time….
Serve it with sweet ans spicy chutney..Alternately u can add more layers of flavor with  other dry fruits in the center ….
Enjoy

Aditi Sheth