Vegetable Manchurian with left over rice!

Yes, left over rice.... I cooked too much rice on the weekend and did not know what to do with it. Then it struck me... long back when I was in India, I had seen this recipe on a cooking show - either Tarla Dalal or Khana Khazana about making manchurian with left over rice! I had made it many times in India (10-12 years back!). I decided to try it again....rather reluctantly because... I hate frying... its so messy (and I have to clean it all up) and I try to stay away from it for obvious reasons... my bulging midriff and hubby's triglycerides! Hey but once in a while, indulging in to sinful fried bliss is OK.. right? But, it is never once in a while - last weekend was the long weekend, so first there were burgers, then brownies, then chocolate cake, then pakoras... the list goes on! Everyday I say to myself... I need to stop, I need to stop.... and I really need to... soon it will happen ;).... for now here goes the recipe -

For the manchurian balls
Left over rice
1 tbls corn starch (if the rice is cooked with enough water and is starchy then no need for the corn starch - just make sure you can form round balls after adding veggies)
Shredded cabbage
Grated carrots
Any other vegetables you want to add - green beans, peas, etc.. finely chopped or mashed)
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

For the gravy - I adopted the gravy recipe from this blog and modified it to my taste. Prema has other excellent recipes you should definitely check out.

For the balls, mash the rice, mix all the ingredients together and make small balls. Fry them on medium (not to high, otherwise the balls break) heat. Mix them in the above gravy and garnish with spring onions. Serve with the Chinese fried rice. When hubby takes the first bite and says - "This is tooo good" without asking him how it is, you know it has to be good ;)

Batata Wada

I am back.... I know, I keep disappearing and whenever I come back, I promise myself, I will not do this again :), but it happens again. What to do, I tried being the supermom - go to work, take care of the house, take care of my family and then have some time for myself to write a blog ... ha ha... did not work. Only time I can do it is from work. So, here I am, have some free time at work so decided to give this another try. I love batata wada (potato dumplings, fritters, whatever you want to call them). The batata wada can be eaten as is or with bread(pav wada or wada pav)served with green chutney and red garlic chutney). The green chutney is made with coriander and green chilies and the garlic chutney is made with red chillies and garlic, so you can add as much chutney as you want and make it as hot as your palate can hold :)... yum! On my recent trip to India... I had a long list of items that I wanted to eat and the batata wada was on my list twice :). Being a Maharashtrian, my tolerance level for hot food is much more than my dear North Indian husband. My list included wada pav, sabudana wada, misal pav, puran poli, etc. Top items on my husband's list were pav bhaji, chaat, frankie, coconut water, sugarcane juice, sugarcane juice and some more sugarcane juice :).... he loves sugarcane juice.
I was in Mumbai (best place to eat wada pav) for a major part of the trip and though I did not know the hot spots for where to eat this delicacy, I was satisfied eating it from the store next door. The garlic chutney that goes with it is out of this world. Will post the recipe for that some other time. Anyway, here goes my recipe for batata wada. This was the first time, they came out intact after frying and did not break.

For the filling -
4-5 boiled potatoes
Ginger-Garlic paste
Green chili paste (optional)
Salt per taste.
Mustard seeds
Curry leaves(3-4)
Pinch of asfotedia
Pinch of turmeric

For the coating
Besan(chickpea flour)- about one cup (I rarely measure, just eyeball it)
Sooji rawa (1-2 tea spoon fulls)
water to mix
Salt per taste
Pinch of turmeric for color

Oil for Frying

To make the filling, cut potatoes in to small pieces or mash them. In a pan, add 1-2 tbls of oil, add mustard seeds, allow them to splutter, add asfotedia, curry leaves, turmeric, ginger, garlic and chili paste, then add the potatoes and salt. Mix everything well and allow it to cook covered for 1-2 minutes or until you see steam coming out of the pan. Turn off the heat and allow the mixture to cool. Once cool, make small balls (tennis ball size) of the mixture.

For the coating, mix all the ingredients together in to a smooth paste. Adding a little bit on sooji makes the coating crispy.

Now, coat each ball with the above coating and fry these balls till they turn slightly golden in color. Serve them hot, just with tomato sauce or with pav and chutneys, they will taste amazing either way.