Easy home-made Fried Rice-Manchurian Combo

This is the story of an Accidental Indian Chinese Menu for dinner at our place. Just the other day my mother-in-law was planning to make Kofta curry (dumplings made from gram flour and cabbage served with tomato gravy). Now my sis-in-law and I are not the biggest fans of this curry. While we were still exploring other options for dinner my sis-in-law suggested that we make Chinese since the kofta dumpling was more or less like Manchurian belonging to the Chinese cuisine both in terms of appearance and taste.

While I decided to make fried rice my sis-in-law took upon the task of making Manchurian with gravy. Our team effort came to fruition when we were showered with compliments. We were just glad to have brought something different to our dinner table that night.

Believe it or not but the fried rice-manchurian combination is extremely simple to cook. And no, we did not use any pre-mix to prepare the gravy for Manchurian. It was all cooked from scratch at home. 

now doesn't this look inviting?

Ingredients

Manchurian Balls

½  a Shredded cabbage

1 Shredded carrot

2 spring onion sticks (chopped)

½ Finely chopped capsicum

2 tbsp maida

2 tbsp Cornflour

Water (just enough to bind)

½ tbsp pepper

Salt to taste

Manchurian gravy

1 tbsp oil

2 dried red chillies

2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste

1 capfuls of soy sauce

1.5 tbsp vinegar

Sugar to taste

½ tbsp ketchup (optional)

1 red bell pepper (cut in big chunks)

1 capsicum (cut in big chunks)

4 baby corn fingers (sliced in halves and then roughly cut)

Handful of mushrooms (cut in chunks)

2 spring onion sticks (finely chopped)

2 tbsp cornflour dissolved in 4 tbsp water

Additional water as per required consistency

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Fried Rice

2 spring onion sticks (chopped)

½ a capsicum (chopped in chunks)

1 carrot (chopped in small chunks)

4 mushroom buttons (chopped)

Fistful of sweet corn

Handful of French beans (chopped)

3 tbsp oil

1.5 tbsp ginger-garlic paste

2 capful soy sauce

1 capful green chilli sauce

1 tbsp vinegar

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Recipe 

Manchurian Balls

Mix together all the ingredients and keep aside for 15-20 minutes.

Form balls and deep fry them.

Once they are golden brown transfer them to a plate covered with paper towel to get rid of the excess oil.

Manchurian Gravy

Put oil in a wok. When hot, add dried red chillies to it.

Add the chopped spring onions leaving greens for later. Add ginger-garlic paste and cook for a few minutes.

Add all veggies, sprinkle with salt and sauté for 5 minutes.

Add soy sauce to it and cook for a minute followed by water.

Add cornflour-water mix to it and let it come to a boil. Add a bit of ketchup. When the desired consistency is achieved add vinegar and sugar to it.

Add salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle with the chopped shoots of the spring onions.

Fried Rice

Steam french beans, baby corn, sweet corn and carrot.

Add oil to a wok. When hot, add chopped green onion leaving the shoots for later.

Add ginger-garlic paste, cook for a few seconds.

Drop in all the veggies, sprinkle with some salt and sauté for a few minutes.

Add soy sauce, green chilli sauce and vinegar. Mix it all well and cook for a few seconds.

Add pepper to taste.

Add boiled rice to the veggie mix and mix well.

Taste and add salt, pepper and sauces as per liking.

Sprinkle the chopped green shoots of spring onions and serve hot.

Note:

Since we had the Manchurian balls ready, making this combo was an almost effortless job for us. For your convenience, I have provided the recipe of the Manchurian balls. 

The veggies in the gravy are optional. We used them to make the dish more nutritional.

You can use left over rice also to prepare fried rice.

Ketchup is absolutely optional. Sugar will do the trick of balancing the flavours.

You can use garlic powder if you do not like peeling garlic cloves, else use help like I always do :p.

It is advisable to have the gravy fresh since the gravy thickens after sometime.

Happy Cooking!