American Chopsuey yet another Indo-Chinese delight which you can rarely find anywhere outside India. Niven - this one is for you. :-) American Chopsuey is neither American nor Chinese. I think my first attempt at eating American Chopsuey is either at China Tower or Golden Dragon. It was a very unique experience to eat "Murukku Noodles" with gravy. Not particularly a huge fan of american chopsuey, but did have it every once in a while including "Chung Wah" in Koramangala. They used to dish out a killer chopsuey with just the right amount of everything.
Technically it is not supposed to be a very complicated dish. Chopsuey is nothing but a Chinese Avial where you put in all left over veggies and make some sauce out of it. The difference with the "American" version is of course the usage of Ketchup.
Ingredients:
2) Garlic (thinly sliced)
3) Green chillies
4) Onions, Cabbage and Capsicum - all cut into 1.5 inch wedges
5) Carrots - thinly sliced
6) Baby corn
7) Vinegar
8) Soya sauce
9) Tomato Ketchup
10) Corn flour
12) Seasme oil
The Method
1) Boil the noodles, drain, dust it with corn flour (this is very very important!!) and set aside.
2) Heat up a wok and pour a few tablespoons of sesame oil.
3) Once fuming add garlic and chillies and sautee for a few seconds.
(If you would like to add any thin slices of meat now would be a good time.)
4) Add the onions and carrots and sautee for a 1-2 minutes.
5) Add a few teaspoons of vinegar.
6) Add cabbage, baby corn and capsicum. Sautee for a few minutes. (Note: Do not let the veggies go too soggy)
7) Add few tablespoons tomato ketchup.
8) Add water as much sauce is needed and bring to a boil.
9) When the water comes to a boil add the corn flour water.
10) Bring the mixture to a boil until the sauce thickens to the required consistency. It should not be too watery or should not be a porridge either.
Tip: If it becomes too sour add a bit of sugar.
....Now comes the tricky part....frying the noodles
11) Heat up a wok with generous amount of oil.
12) Once the oil is hot enough start frying the noodles one handful at a time. Of course you can do more if you have a bigger vessel. This is THE most trickiest part of the recipe. It took a few batches of trial error.
a) Once you plonk the noodles spread it around so it forms a circle.
b) Leave it to fry until you hear frequent crackle. Another test is to slightly prod the noodles. If it is soft, it needs further frying. If it is hard enough then flip it over and give it another minute or 2.
13) Fry an egg and keep aside.
14) Place the fried noodles on the plate, pour the veggie sauce over the noodles and top it up with the fried egg. American Chopsuey Ready!!!
