Veg Chowmein

A good bowl of chowmein is my weakness. I am humbled to have grown up in meri dilli or Delhi where Indo-Chinese food is available everywhere in its most authentic form. Chowmein or noodles is the main flower in the beautiful bouquet of Indo-Chinese cuisine, which is hugely popular in India.

It is very typical of Delhi roadsides to have food carts, food trucks or vans selling Indo-Chinese food such as manchurian, chopsuey, hakka noodles - all Chinese dishes with an Indian tadka.

Chowmein or noodles are quick and easy to make and very nutritious. The more the vegetables the better it tastes and is healthy too. It is any kid's favourite meal and a much healthier and nutritious alternative to the packet noodles advertised on the television that claim to be ready in 2 minutes.

Of course, we love a piping hot plate of Maggi once in a while.

Since I started making this veg noodles at home I got rid of the guilt associated with cooking 2 minute meals which are barely nutritious.

I love loading up my chowmein with different and colourful vegetables such as carrots, red, yellow and green bell peppers, cabbage, onions and spring onions. Sometimes my noodles also include mushrooms, broccoli, baby corn and sweet corn, if these veggies are in my fridge.

Little M is the reason I started cooking chowmein at home and the other reason is that in the UAE it is difficult to find authentic taste of dilliwali chowmein. Since my little boy so loves the noodles I hardly put chili sauce or green chili as I want him to enjoy and relish it. Sometimes after separating his share or packing enough for his school lunch box, I put in red chili sauce or slit green chilies to give it that dilliwala spicy tadka.

Difficulty: Easy

Prepping time: 15 min

Cooking time: 15 min

Ingredients:

2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste (I used finely chopped)

2-3 tbsp oil

3-4 stalks of spring onion, vertically sliced

1 onion, sliced

1/2 green capsicum, sliced

2 carrots, shredded

1/2 cup cabbage, shredded

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp white vinegar

1 tsp black pepper powder

1 tsp red chili powder

spring onion greens, for garnish

1 packet of noodles

2 tbsp red chili sauce/hot sauce (optional)

1/2 orange and yellow bell peppers, sliced (optional)

Method:

Before you put on the flame make sure that each ingredient is on the shelf including chopped or shredded veggies, sauces and seasonings. I think preparing the ingredients and getting them ready beforehand decreases stress, burns or accidents, and that way the cooking becomes more organised.

The chowmein is going to take a big wok and a medium to high flame and for you to keep stirring to avoid veggies to burn or become mushy. We want our veggies to be soft yet crunchy!

So first prepare all ingredients as chowmein is a quick dish and you will need to quickly add all ingredients to the stir fry process.

Boiling the noodles

1) In a pot put lots of water. Add 1 tbsp olive oil (or any other cooking oil) and a pinch of salt. Let it boil and then add the noodles. It would roughly take 2-4 minutes for the noodles to cook. But its best to refer the packet and prepare according to the kind of noodles you are using.

We need to cook the noodles half way to avoid them becoming mushy or sticky. Strain the noodle in a colander after it is half way boiled, and I also take the colander of noodles and strain it under running tap water to avoid the noodles from sticking. At this step I like to add 1 tbsp of oil to the noodles and mix well without breaking them. This ensures the noodles aren't sticky.

Set aside the boiled and strained noodles.

Stir frying the veggies:

You may use all of the veggies mentioned above or you may just do with onion, spring onion, carrot and capsicum. Make sure to add half the quantity of each vegetable when you are using many different veggies.

1) Start by heating up oil in a wide non-stick wok. On a medium to high flame, add ginger-garlic paste. Stir fry until the raw smell goes. (I used finely chopped ginger-garlic)
 

2) Add spring onions. Stir.

3) Onion slices need to be added without over cooking spring onions. Stir fry on medium to high flame.

3) Add in the carrots. I used both Indian red carrot and the orange carrot. :-) Stir fry.

4) Put the sliced bell peppers, cabbage. Stir fry.

On a low flame cover the wok for 2 min for the veggies to soften in steam.

5) Remove the lid and stir on high flame to remove moisture. Add in soy sauce, black pepper powder, red chili powder, salt to taste. Stir well.

6) Finally add the noodles and 1 tbsp vinegar. Using two kadchhi or spoons mix the noodles with the veggies tadka with a light hand. Be careful not to break the noodles!

Garnish with chopped spring onion greens and serve hot.

These can be eaten just like that or even accompanied with this Chili Tofu Gravy recipe or veg or chicken manchurian.

How do you like your noodles or chowmein?

Do you like it spicy like me and like to add in red chili sauce and lots of slit green chilies too?

Tell me all that is running in your mind about this recipe of chowmein!

I would love to read what you think!

Thanks for reading! :-)

Veg Chili Tofu Gravy

Indo-Chinese is the second most sought-after cuisine in meri Dilli after the diverse North Indian cuisine.

Chinese food vans parked amidst busy sector markets or dotted aside the ever-buzzing Delhi roads, can make me happy the moment I spot one. The feeling is akin to a child spotting an ice-cream vendor. Not that I love ice-cream any less! But my appetite for Indo-Chinese is so huge that I have to stop myself from digging into it.

These food vans serve treasures of authentic Indo-Chinese food to Dilliwalas, hot, spicy with a huge menu ranging from chowmein or noodles in different sauces, bubbling soups and chili chicken or chili paneer to suit both the vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

This Veg Chili Tofu Gravy recipe is inspired by the Chinese food vans of Delhi. When I tried the Veg Chili Tofu recipe a few weeks back and served it for dinner with Veg Fried Rice, I felt the dish needed more quantity of gravy or sauce in order to be eaten with rice. So this Veg Chili Tofu Gravy recipe makes more sense when you want to serve it for dinner accompanied with rice or noodles. Read more about Tofu and its health benefits in this post. Tofu is made from soybean and is easily available in your local supermarket. Go ahead and replace the tofu with paneer or cottage cheese cubes and the taste would still be the same.

The Veg Chili Tofu recipe I posted earlier in February is better off as a starter or a snack. There is hardly any difference between the two recipes the only thing I subtracted is the chili sauce and added more corn flour to thicken the sauce and added water to make the gravy/sauce.

Difficulty: Easy

Prepping time: 20 min

Cooking time: 30 min

Ingredients:

4-5 cloves of ginger, finely chopped

2 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped

1 onion, quartered

1 big capsicum, julienne

5-6 green chilies, slit

spring onions, chopped

spring onion greens, chopped for garnish

Tofu 250gm, diced

Corn flour 4-5 tbsp

2 cups water/stock

Cooking oil

red chili powder 1 tsp

black pepper powder1 tsp

salt, to taste

soy sauce 2 tbsp

For frying Tofu cubes:

1) Coat tofu with 1 tbsp corn flour, 1/2 tsp black pepper powder, salt to taste. See how to marinate tofu before frying.

2) Heat a non-stick pan and shallow fry tofu pieces until they look  like this:

Keep aside the fried tofu cubes.

For the gravy/sauce:

1) Take the same pan used to fry tofu cubes. Add some oil and toss in the whites of spring onion. Saute until translucent. 

2) Put in the finely chopped ginger-garlic. Saute until the raw smell goes.

3) Add in the quartered onions.

4) Saute until translucent.

5) Add in the julienne capsicum and slit green chilies. Saute until the capsicum is half-cooked. Keep a little crunchy.

6) Add 1/2 tsp black pepper powder and 2 tbsp soy sauce. Stir. Pour in 2 cups of water/stock.

3) Now add 2-3 tbsp corn flour mixed in equal quantity of water. Bring to boil. As the sauce/gravy thickens, add in the fried cubes of tofu.

Veg Chili Tofu Gravy is ready!

Garnish with chopped greens of spring onions.

Serve with Veg Fried Rice or noodles.

Thanks for reading! :-)

Veg Fried Rice

Hello foodies! 

Making superb Chinese food with Indian tadka is one of my goals. And the reason is because Indo-Chinese food is my favourite.

This veg fried rice recipe is simple and quick (ready in under 30min). You can serve it as a standalone or accompanied with Veg Manchurian, Chilli Paneer, Chicken Chilli or even with this Chilli Tofu recipe.

It is a favourite recipe for me as its hassle-free, simple and full of colourful vegetables. I love to feed this dish full of veggies to Little M.

The vegetables I used are orange and green bell pepper, orange and red carrots and onions, but you can go ahead and add mushrooms, baby corn, peas and cabbage too.

Ingredients:

1 glass/cup rice

1 finely chopped Australian carrot (orange)

1 finely chopped Indian carrot (red)

1 finely chopped green bell pepper (capsicum)

1 finely chopped orange bell pepper

4-5 finely chopped garlic cloves

2-3 spring onion whites chopped vertically

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp white vinegar

1/2 tbsp black pepper powder

2-3 tbsp oil

salt to taste

Method:

1. Start by washing and soaking rice in enough water. Keep them soaked for at least 15min.

2. In a large vessel, heat twice the amount of water to the quantity of rice you are using.

3. Add 1 tbsp of ghee or oil to water along with 1tsp salt.

4. Now add soaked rice minus the water to the boiling water and let it cooked until nearly done.

5. When rice seems nearly cooked, remove from heat and drain the water out of the rice using a colander. Keep aside so the rice cools down.

Tip: To make sure the rice doesn't stick to each other, gently rinse the rice in cold water using the colander to ensure that they stop cooking. (I wish I had pictures of making the rice!)

Now let's start with the stir frying of our vegetables.

1. In a large non-stick wok, pour 2 tbsp oil and add the chopped garlic. On medium to more heat, add spring onion whites to it. Stir. At this stage, you can put slit green chili if you want to make it a bit spicy.

2. Now add the finely chopped red onions. Stir.

Do not let the onions or any of the vegetables turn brown. Make sure all your vegetables are chopped and ready before you start.

3. Now add the veggies. Stir fry.

4. At this stage I covered the wok for 2 min with a lid to allow the carrots to soften. Slow the heat to minimum to make sure the veggies don't burn or become mushy.

5. Remove the lid after 2 min and check if your carrots are done. Now add the soy sauce, salt and black pepper powder. Stir.

6. Add in the rice and try to mix carefully without breaking the rice using two spoons or kadchi.

Your veg fried rice is ready!

Serve hot and garnish with finely chopped greens of spring onion.

 I would recommend mothers with fussy-eaters to offer this delicious looking stir fry rice to you little ones. Its packed with the goodness of veggies and will be gobbled down within minutes by the little ones.

Please don't leave without writing a word or two. I would love to read what you think of this recipe. :-)

Veg Chilli Tofu

Something amazing happened last week when I was browsing down the aisles of our local supermarket I stumbled upon Tofu. I immediately put it in into my trolley and it was one of the best food decisions I made as someone who is always on the scout for healthy cooking options.

Now what is tofu, some of you may ask. It resembles the highly valued (specially by vegetarian North Indians) paneer but is a way more healthier swap for paneer aka cottage cheese. the white soft and spongy blocks of Tofu are made from soy milk and it is a nutritionally packed food, high in iron, calcium and other micro nutrients but low in fat. :-)

A lot has been said about the health benefits of tofu, so without much ado let me share with you my first time cooking experience with tofu.

I got 500gm of fresh tofu for only AED 5 (price way less than paneer) and cooked two recipes with it and one of it was chilli tofu.

The basic rule is to treat tofu as you treat paneer and cook in the same as it tastes and looks just the same.

This chilli tofu is a vegetarian's delight cooked with vegetables like green capsicum and onion. It is a dry recipe and a spicy Indo-chinese version so we will use soy sauce and hot red chilli sauce.

It is not a quick recipe and it took me 40 min to get done with it but once the husband - M and Little M tasted it I knew it was all worth the effort and time.

I have already been getting requests from M to make the chilli tofu once again. :-)

You can serve it with fried rice which is what I did or eat it as a dry starter or even roll it up into chapattis to make a chilli tofu wrap which can be an easy lunch box snack.

Here is a step by step recipe with lots of pictures :-)


For marinating tofu:

• 250gm tofu, cubed
• 2 tbsp corn flour
• 1/4 tsp red chili and black pepper powder each
• 2 tbsp oil
• salt

For gravy:

• 1 onion, cut in squares
• 1 capsicum, cut in squares
• 1-2 spring onion greens chopped
• 1 tbsp each of ginger and garlic, finely chopped
• 5 green chilies, sliced vertically
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp hot red chili sauce or hot sauce
• 1/4 tsp each of red chili powder, black pepper
• 2 tbsp water to add in corn flour
• salt

Method

Marinating tofu

1. Start by patting dry tofu and then cut it into cubes.
2. In a mixing bowl, put the tofu cubes and add 2 tbsp corn flour, 1/4 tsp of red chili and black pepper powder each, 2 tbsp oil and a pinch of salt
3. Mix it all very gently and carefully without breaking tofu cubes.

Frying tofu

1. In a non-stick tawa or frying pan, put 2 tbsp of oil and fry marinated tofu cubes on a medium heat without breaking the cubes until golden and crisp. Make sure to not fry for more than 5 min as it will harden the tofu cubes.
2. While the tofu is being fried in the bowl in which we marinated there will be some leftover corn flour and spices add 3-4 tbsp of water to it and mix. We will use it later to thicken our gravy.

3. In another small bowl, take 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp hot red chili sauce or hot sauce, 1/4 tsp each of red chili powder, black pepper and mix with a spoon and keep aside.

Preparing the gravy

1. In a non-stick pan add 1-2 tbsp oil and add the finely chopped ginger and garlic. Stir.

2. Add the onion and capsicum.

3. On medium heat stir fry the veggies until capsicum is cooked.

4. Add the mixed sauces and salt but not too much of salt as the sauces already contain salt. Stir.

5. Add corn starch paste. Stir and check the taste and add salt or red chilli powder if required. Add the pan-fried tofu cubes. Stir.

Garnish with spring onion greens and serve hot.

I would highly recomend this recipe if you like a hot and spicy stir fry. Go ahead and try this easy recipe that will surely make you and your family happy.

Please do share your thoughts with me on this recipe and drop me a line or two about how your recipe turned out. I would love to read what you think! :-)