Hakka Noodles (Indo-Chinese Noodles with Vegetables)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 
Week 1: Bengali Cuisine
Day 8: H for Hakka Noodles
Can't believe we are the end of Week 1 in our Journey through Cuisines and final Bengali dish I present to you is in fact a fusion Indo-Chinese dish that has it's origins in Calcutta/ Kolkatta, the capital city of West Bengal. H for Hakka Noodles was my first and final choice for the letter. Soma @ Ecurry has a lovely post for Hakka noodles where she talks about the Chinese businesses in Calcutta and the amazing Indo-Chinese cuisine that was developed there years ago.

Calcutta (or more recently Kolkatta) is known to be the first place where Chinese migrated in the late 18th and 19th centuries. They brought along their Chinese seasoning and cooking techniques that were adapted to Indian tastes which developed into the popular Indo-Chinese cuisine that we all enjoy today.

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Baby Corn Pepper Fry

Blogging Marathon# 47: Week 1/ Day 2

Theme: North Indian Starters

Dish: Baby Corn Pepper Fry

For Day 2 of this week's blogging marathon, I made an Indo-Chinese favorite. Even though I stay away from deep frying, I couldn't stop myself from frying these yummy baby corn pakoras/ fritters. I had this appetizer way back when in India and have been thinking about it ever since, finally got a chance to try it at home now.

I am not 100% sure if this Indo-Chinese dish is really a North Indian starter, but since it is Indo-Chinese and China is in the north of India, I decided to run with it :-)

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Vegetable Manchurian (Lower fat version)

Manchurian is a quintessential Indo-Chinese dish that is loved by many Indians, including my husband. I am on the fence for this one -- I don't love it and I don't dislike it either. My husband says he used to eat excellent Gobhi & Veg manchurian during his college days and since then made it a point to order it whenever we are at an Indian restaurant. I reluctantly agree for it because I've had my share of really good ones and really bad ones too and I'm usually skeptical how the dish we ordered is going to be.

I don't make them at home because manchurian are generally deep fried and that is something I avoid as much as I can. But when I realized they can be made in the paniyaram/ appe/ ableskiver pan, I was ecstatic and made these vegetable manchurian. I was even more ecstatic when they came out perfect and tasted much better than the resaturant ones (or so I thought).

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Schezwan Sauce (Indo-Chinese Red Chili-Garlic sauce)

Nothing beats homemade condiments and sauces. Even though it is quite tempting to buy store bought sauces because of their convenience, I think if you have time it is much better to make them from scratch at home. Homemade sauces have no preservatives and are much healthier than the ones in the bottle.

The schezwan sauce is made with red chilies along with the regular Indo-Chinese ingredients like ginger, garlic, soy sauce etc. Recipe is adapted from Veg Recipes of India. It is spicy, tangy and sweet at the same time. The sauce can also be used to make schezwan noodles or even used to dip momos or dumplings.

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Schezwan Fried Rice with Vegetable Manchurian (Indo-Chinese Recipes)

Blogging Marathon# 47: Week 3/ Day 2
Theme: Combo Dishes
Dishes: Fried Rice with Manchurian

For Day 2 of combo dishes, I made this super popular Indo-Chinese combo, Schezwan Fried Rice with Vegetarian Manchurian.My husband loves ordering manchurian whenever we go out to Indian restaurants and he keeps asking me to make it at home too. But I keep postponing because manchurian are typically deep fried and I try to keep away from deep frying as much as I possibly can.
So when I saw this combo on Valli's list, I knew it was time to try these delicious dishes and I did not deep fry the manchurian either. I used my paniyaram/ appe/ aebleskiver pan instead. It worked like a charm and I was able to make some yummy vegetable manchurian.

To go with the manchurian, I made some vegetable schezwan rice. This is spicy fried rice made with veggies and schezwan sauce. Bottled schezwan sauce is available in stores but it is quite simple to make at home, most of the ingredients are readily available in the pantry.

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