Chilli Chicken - Indo Chinese Style

Since the time I left India there is always a craving for good Indo Chinese food. Unfortunately there have not been many restaurants that fitted the bill. I ended up re-creating those dishes I was missing. Chilli chicken is definitely one of those. This can be made in a different ways - dry, semi-dry or with a bit of sauce. I like this as a starter and hence made the dry version. This is a great starter to go along with the drink of your choice or as a side dish for noodles or fried rice. So without further ado...

Ingredients

1. Boneless chicken - 500 gms
2. Eggs - 2
3. Corn flour - 1.5 cups (add more as needed to get the required batter consistency)
4. Maida / Plain Flour - 1/2 cup
5. Red chilli powder - 1 tea spoon
6. Onions - 1 - cut in cubes
7. Green chillies - about a dozen depending on your spice appetite
8. Vinegar - 2 table spoons
9. Garlic - minced - 2 table spoons
10. Ginger - grated - 1 tea spoon
11. Sugar - 1/2 tea spoon
12. Dark soy sauce - 1 table spoon
13. Capsicum - 2 diced in cubes
14. Vegetable oil
15. Salt - to taste

Method

1. Dice the chicken breast in small slices. It is important to cut / slice it thin and diagonally. DO NOT chop it in cubes. Idea is to make it cook fairly quickly or a flash fry.
2. In a large bowl mix 2 eggs, corn flour, plain flour, red chilli powder and some salt. 
3. Create a thick paste and add water slowly and create a smooth but thick batter. If too watery add little amounts of corn flour to make it thick.
4. Marinate the cut chicken in the batter until you get done with other chopping / preparation tasks.
5. Chop up the onions in small cubes.
6. Slit the green chillies.
7. Mince the garlic in small pieces.
8. Grate about 2 inches or so of ginger to get about 1 tea spoon of grated ginger.
9. Dice the capsicums.
10. In a large hot wok fill about 1 cup of oil and heat it up. Test the heat by dropping a small piece of batter and it should pop up immediately.
11. Fry the chicken pieces in batches and keep aside.
12. Once done transfer the oil into a separate bowl, wipe it with a towel and heat it again.
13. Pour a few table spoons of the oil.
14. Once hot add the garlic, chillies and onions and saute for about 2 minutes.
15. Add vinegar and sugar (to balance the pungentness of vinegar) and toss it up.
16. Add the deep fried chicken pieces with the soy sauce and toss it up.
17. Add salt to taste.
18. Add the capsicums and toss it well.
19. Make a corn flour slurry with a tea spoon of corn flour and few table spoons of water.
20. Add the slurry and toss well for about a minute.
21. If you want more sauce add about a cup of water and bit more of corn flour slurry and let it boil until a thick sauce is prepared.

Enjoy!!

C

Schezwan Chilli Baby Corn

Schezwan sauce is such a versatile sauce that can be used to make a variety of dishes.  You can find the recipe for the sauce here. The 1st in those series in Schezwan baby corn. This works very well as a starter / appetiser/ entree / side dish - whatever you like to call. :) You can of course adapt this to make many dishes to replace the baby corn with any bite sized chunky food item - such as paneer, mushrooms, cauliflower (for the veggies) or chicken, prawn or fish. You can also prepare noodles and fried rice - which will be coming up shortly. This is definitely not for those who can't consume spicy food.

Ingredients

1. Baby corn - 400 gms
2. Schezwan sauce - 3-4 table spoons
3. Maida (All purpose flour) - 4 table spoons
4. Corn flour - 2 table spoons 
5. Eggs - 2 (for pure vegetarians you can exclude the eggs)
6. Soya sauce - 3-4 table spoons
7. Tomato ketchup - 2 table spoons
8. Sugar - 1 tea spoon
9. Vinegar - 2-3 table spoons
10. Minced garlic - 1 bulb
11. Dice onions - 2-3 table spoons
12. Kashmiri dried red chillies - 8-10 (you can use normal dried red chillies too)

Method

1. Depending on the size of your baby corns, you may cut them up into 2 or 3 pieces.
2. In a wide bowl mix 1 table spoon of the sauce with a pinch of salt and marinade them for about 30 minutes.
3. Prepare a slightly thick batter with the all purpose flour, corn flour, eggs, 1/2 tea spoon of salt, 1 table spoon of soya sauce and water. Make sure you add water slowly to make sure you don't have a watery batter.
4. Add the marinated baby corn into the batter and mix well.
5. In a large wok heat up enough oil (any oil will do) and deep fry the baby corn coated in batter few at a time until it turn slightly brown.
6. Once done transfer the excess oil to another bowl leaving about 3-4 table spoons of oil in the wok.
7. In high heat let the wok smoke a bit.
8. Add the garlic and onions and saute them quickly for about 30 seconds. Make sure you don't burn the garlic.
9. Add the red chillies, sugar and vinegar and give it a good mix.
10. Add the deep fried baby corn pieces add tomato sauce and soya sauce. You may add a bit of salt to taste.

Enjoy!!

C

Indo Chinese Spring Roll

Spring Rolls - this dish takes me back about 3 decades ago when I had tasted it for the first time at "China Town" restaurant in Salem. Since then it was always one of my favourite starters to order whenever we went to a Chinese restaurant in India. Some of my family may still remember the short "stint" I did at the kitchens in Savera Hotel, Chennai in 1993 - right after high school. That is where I learnt how to make a spring roll which I replicated a few times in few of my relatives houses. I couldn't cook this dish at home since eggs were still not allowed in the kitchen then. Fast forward a few years I had the opportunity to try spring rolls in USA. It was never the same - it was bit more crispier, but the fillings were bland. For whatever reason I stayed away from this dish for decades - until recently it popped up in my memory urging me to try this again. I couldn't quite remember the ratios of certain ingredients and fumbled a bit initially but got it right the 2nd time around. So let's get going with this yummy appetizer / entree (depending on which side of the globe you are).

What goes in

Wrapper

1. Maida / Plain flour - 2 cups
2. Corn flour - 3 cups (note the ratio between Maida to Corn flour should be 2:3)
3. Eggs - 2
4. Baking soda - 1 tea spoon
5. Salt - 1 tea spoon
6. Water - 4-5 cups (enough to create a runny batter)

Filling

1. Carrot  - 2 or 3
2. Cabbage - 250 gms
3. Capsicum / Bell Peppers - 1 or 2
4. Red Onion - 1
5. Garlic - 3 or 4 cloves
6. Salt
7. Black Pepper powder
8. Vinegar - 1 table spoon

Feel free to add any eggs or thinly sliced chicken should you chose to add any protein to the filling.

The Method

Wrapper

1. Mix all the ingredients of the wrapper in a large bowl and create a runny batter.
2. Heat a large wok - preferably non-stick wok.
   
3. Pour about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of batter on to the wok and keep swirling it around until the batter creates an even thin skin around the wok.
4. In about 20 seconds you should slowly blow around the edges and the wrapper / skin should separate out of the wok. Use your fingers to slowly remove the wrapper out of the wok. You should not be using any spatula / utensil for this.
5. Store the wrappers on a plate dusting it with corn flour between the wrappers.

Filling

1. Thinly slice / shred the vegetables 
2. In the same wok heat a few tablespoons of vegetable oil and saute the minced garlic with the vinegar.
3. If you are adding chicken or egg, now would be a good time to add and saute until cooked well.
4. Add the vegetables and saute for a few minutes with salt and pepper to taste.

Spring Roll

1. Place about 1 tablespoon of the filling in one end of the wrapper and slowly roll it into a cylindrical roll. After 2 or 3 rolls fold the sides and roll it up so that none of the filling is exposed.
2. Use egg wash or corn flour slurry to glue the last bits of the wrapper so that it sticks to the roll firmly.
3. In a large wok fill enough vegetable oil to be able to deep fry the spring rolls.
4. Once the oil is hot enough deep fry the rolls until golden brown.
5. Chop them up diagonally or just as cylinders and serve hot with tomato or sweet chilli sauce.
6. You should have a crisp outer layer with some soft and crunchy layers of filling inside.

Happy Cooking!!

C