Spicy Orange Chicken

Everyone who lives in America should be familiar with this Chinese-American orange chicken commonly found at Chinese fast food restaurants. What makes this dish so special is the combination of orange flavor and the sweetness. I choose to make this orange chicken in my kitchen for its flavor but I made it more spicy with little sweetness  and this is the Indo-Chinese-American version  of orange chicken. For the orange flavor I replaced orange peel (zest) for orange juice just for no reason and I felt juice is better than zest and if you wish, you could very well use the orange peel and remember that you have to soak the zest in water for half an hour before using it. The both spiciness and sweetness made this dish really awesome so please don’t consider adding sugar or brown sugar as optional, I would say it is the secret ingredient which adds more flavor and taste to the dish.

Ingredient
For marinating
Boneless Chicken – 1lb
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp
Soy sauce – 1tsp
Vinegar – 1tsp
Cornstarch – 1 tsp
Salt and pepper to taste

Other Ingredients
Carrot and Bell pepper – 1 cup
Onion – ½ of one chopped
Ginger Chopped – 1 tsp
Garlic Chopped – 2tsp
Orange juice – 1/3 Cup
Ketchup – 1tsp
Chili Garlic sauce – 2 tsp (add according to your taste)
Brown Sugar to taste
Soy Sauce – 2 tsp
Vinegar – 1tsp
Cornstarch – 1tsp mix with water
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil - 2 tsp
Oil to deep fry the chicken

Method
Marinate the chicken with the ingredients under 'for marinating' and keep refrigerated for minimum 1 hr and deep fry in oil and transfer to the kitchen towel to drain the excess oil.
Heat oil in a non-stick pan or wok and garlic and ginger and fry till aromatic and add onion and all the veggies and fry for few mins and add the orange juice with little water and add the chili garlic sauce and soy sauce and salt and pepper and cook for 5 mins. Add the brown sugar and ketchup and mix and add the chicken pieces and cook if you want the gravy to be thick add the cornstarch water or just to your desired consistency. Enjoy with white rice or fried rice.

Note: Increase or decrease the amount brown sugar depending on the sweetness you need.

Warm Up With Hot N Sweet Vegtable Soup

It was very lazy day yesterday as it was raining all day and nothing can comfort than a nice hot soup on rainy day and even more better when u have cold. Yesterday dinner was totally chinese, vegetable noodles and this hot and sweet soup. I'm fairly certain that everyone enjoyed their dinner including my little girl. Its been a while since I made this soup and when I made yesterday it tasted heavenly.
My girl refused to have the food I made for her and she wanted only the spicy noodles and she didn't have much of this soup as it was too spicy for her.

Ingredients
Vegetable Broth - 1 tin (chicken broth can also be used)
Cream style corn - 1 tin
Mixed vegetable - 1 cup very finley chopped ( I used carrot, beans, cabbage)
Soy Sauce - 1 tsp
Chili Garlic Sauce - 1 tsp
Ginger chopped - 1tsp
Garlic chopped - 1 tsp
Vinegar - 2 tsp
Oil - 1tsp
Corn Flour - 1 tsp
Salt and Pepper to taste
Spring Onion to Garnish

Method
Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan and add the chopped garlic and ginger and saute for few mins.
Add the vegetables and fry in a medium flame and add the chili garlic sauce and splash little water to it to avoid burning and cook till the veggies are half cooked.
Now add the vegetable broth and vinegar and cook in a low flame for 10 mins.
Now add the corn and cook again for 10 more mins and add soy sauce and  salt and pepper to your taste.
Finish it with by adding the corn powder mixed in little water, this helps to thicken the soup. Garnish with spring onion.

 

Garden Vegetable Noodles

Deciding on what to cook for dinner is one big nightmare for me as my sunny boy doesn't agree with any menus I come up with. He always says he wants something nice, spicy and tasty. I wish I could find what that nice, spicy and tasty food would look like.This vegetable noodles is one darling dish for me as everyone in my family even my sunny will agree with. This dish is not too spicy just b'coz he does not like spicy and also I fear that if I do so I have to move this darling dish to enemy list so I prepare it according to his taste. But I and my hubby likes only spicy foods,that time "sriracha hot chili sauce" helps us for all our spicy needs :-)






Ingredients
Egg Noodles
Vegetables of your choice I used
Carrot, beans, broccoli, cabbage, bell pepper - 3 cups
Eggs - 2
Soy Sauce - 4 tsp
Chili Garlic Sauce - 1tsp (increase to ur taste)
Ginger Chopped - 2tsp
Garlic Chopped - 4 tsp
Oil - 2tsp
Salt to taste


Method
Boil the noodles according to the package instruction and drain the excess water. Heat oil in a non- stick skillet. Add ginger and garlic and saute till a nice fragrance comes out, make sure you don't burn the garlic. Add the vegetables one by one and close cook until they are 1/2 done. Move the vegetable to the side of the skillet and break the eggs in the skillet and stir the eggs until its done. Now mix all the vegetables and eggs together. You can also do scramble eggs separately and mix with the vegetables. Add the salt and chili garlic sauce and mix. Add the noodles and now add the soy sauce and stir continuously until all soy sauce is well coated with the noodles.Garnish with spring onions. Serve hot with ketchup.Enjoy!!

Gobi Manchurian Dry

"Gobi Manchurian" can be found in almost all Indian restaurant's menu as this is such a popular dish. Every one mistakes this to be a Chinese dish but this is a pure Indian dish. To my knowledge there is no dish as "Manchurian" in Chinese restaurant menu except in India. Manchuria - The historical name of a region of north-east China. May be this is the reason we call it as a Chinese dish or may be this dish incorporates lots of Chinese ingredients like soy sauce, ginger and garlic. Why bother about the name when the taste is very excellent. Here is the recipe for this dish.




Ingredients:
Gobi / Cauliflower - 1 small cut into bite size florets
Garlic finely chopped - 5 cloves
Ginger finely chopped - 2"
Onion finely chopped - 1/2 cup
Green Chilies chopped - 4
Ketchup - 3 tsp
Chili Garlic sauce - 1tsp
Con starch - 5 tsp
Red flood colour - 1 pinch
Soy Sauce - 3 tsp
Cilantro Chopped - 1/2 cup
Oil to fry
Salt as required


Method :
In a bowl make a paste out of con starch , red food color, chili garlic sauce , 1 tsp of soy sauce, salt and little water. Add cauliflower florets to it and mix it. Deep fry the florets until golden brown and set aside. In a non- stick pan heat 2 tsp of oil and saute onion for 3 mins . Add garlic, ginger and green chilies and fry for 2 mins. Add ketchup and remaining 2tsp of soy sauce and mix for 2 mins. Now add the fried cauliflower and mix until all the sauce is coated well on the gobi. Now add cilantro and give a quick mix and now transfer to a serving plate and enjoy it hot!!!!

Chili Chicken

Yet another hot spicy indo- chinese dish - chili chicken. This dish has become a regular one atleast once a month in my kitchen. I usually make this as a side dish for the fried rice. This dish has a great aroma as we add lots of ginger and garlic and peppers. Try out this beautiful dish and pass on the comments.

Ingredients:

Part1:
Boneless chicken(thigh) - 1/2lb
Pepper Powder - 1 tsp
Egg - 1
Corn flour - 3 tsp
MSG ( Ajinomoto) - 1/4 tsp
Salt as required
Oil to fry

Part 2:

Ginger and Garlic finely chopped - 3 tsp

Bell Pepper - 1/2 cup cut into 1" cubes

Onion - 1/2 cup cut into 1" cubes

Mushroom - 1/2 cup cut ( any vegetable of your choice)

Whole red chili - 5 to 6

Pepper Powder - 1/2 tsp

MSG (Ajinomoto) - 1/2 tsp

Chili Garlic sauce - 1 tsp

Soy Sauce - 2 tsp

Salt as required

Corn flour - 1 tsp mix in little water

Procedure:

Mix all the part 1 ingredients expect oil in a bowl. Deep fry them in oil and set aside. Heat little oil in a non stick pan, add the red chili, ginger ,garlic and saute well. Now add the vegetables one by one from the part 2 and saute for few mins. Then add the pepper powder , salt , msg , chili garlic sauce and soy sauce and mix well and add little water. Now add the chicken and mix well. Last add the corn flour mixed in water spoon by spoon to thicken the gravy. The tasty chili chicken is ready , server with fried rice or plain rice. Enjoy!!!

Chicken Manchurian

Chicken manchurian is one of my favorite dish. First time I had this dish when I was in Bangalore at some restaurant and it tasted really awesome, bad that I do not remember the name of that restaurant but till now the same taste I couldn't get it anywhere even after trying many restaurants in Bangalore alone. So I thought of trying this dish at home and to my surprise it came really well but still not as same the first taste, any way I very well enjoyed this dish. I asked my husband to comment on this dish, immediately he acted like one of the food network judges and went on saying ...this dish is juicy , after the first bite you can still feel the taste in your mouth... and so on.... he was right, check out yourself. My son liked only the first part of the preparation , he named it "egg chicken".

Ingredients:

Part1:

Boneless chicken(thigh) - 1lb

Pepper Powder - 1 tsp

Egg - 1

Corn flour - 3 tsp

MSG ( Ajinomoto) - 1/4 tsp

Salt as required

Oil to fry

Part 2:

Finely chopped onion - 1/2 cup

Garlic (Finely chopped) - 5 cloves

Ginger finely chopped - 2 tsp

Green chilies - 2 or 3 chopped

Cilantro - chopped

Chili Garlic sauce - 1tsp

Soy sauce - 2tsp

Tomato ketchup

MSG (Ajinomoto)

salt

Preparation:

Mix all the part 1 ingredients expect oil in a bowl. Deep fry them in oil and set aside. Next heat little oil in a pan, saute it with onion , ginger , garlic and green chilies. Add chili garlic sauce, soy sauce, ajinomoto and salt .After few mins add the tomato ketchup and mix ,if needed sprinkle little water. Add the fried chicken to it and keep mixing for some time . Garnish with cilantro and serve hot. This is really a great dish. Try and Enjoy!!!!

Fried Rice

Ingredients

Basmati Rice - 2 cups
Cooked vegetables - 1 cup (carrot, peas, beans)
Eggs - 2
MSG(Ajinomoto) - 1 tsp
Soy sauce - 2 tsp
Onion chopped - 1/2 cup
Spring Onion
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Salt as required
Oil - tbsp

Method

Soak the basmati rice in water for 45 mins. If you don't soak the rice, the fried rice doesn't come out good. Boil water in a bowl sufficient enough to cook 2 cups of rice. Add the correct amount of salt (taste the water after adding salt, it has to be little salty). When the water boils add 2 tsps of oil and add the soaked rice without water. Cook the rice till its 90% done then drain the water and spread the rice on a plate.

Next pour oil in a non stick saucepan. When the oil heats up add the chopped onion and saute it for few minutes. Beat the eggs in a bowl and pour it on top of the onion and keep mixing. When the egg is cooked add pepper powder, MSG, soy sauce and mix. Now add the cooked vegetables (can be cooked in a microwave for 3 minutes) and keep mixing. Add little salt for the vegetables and egg (remember rice was cooked with salt in it). Last add the rice and keep mixing. Finally garnish with the spring onions. Enjoy!!!!!

Vegetable Manchurian

Fried Rice with Vegetable Manchurian

Ingredients:For vegetable dumpling

vegetables finely chopped
(carrot,beans,peas,cabbage) - 2 cups
soy sauce - 1tsp
chili garlic sauce - 1tsp
MSG(ajinomoto) - 1/2 tsp

chopped ginger - 1 and 1/2 tsp

chopped green chili - 1 tsp

corn flour - 2 tsp

cooked rice - 1/2 cup (any kind of cooked rice)

salt as required

oil to fry the dumplings.

For the sauce
onion finely chopped - 1

garlic finely chopped - 2 tbsp

ginger finely chopped - 1 tbsp

MSG(ajinomoto) - 1/2 tsp

soy sauce - 1tsp
chili garlic sauce - 1tsp

green chili - 1 tsp

cilantro chopped - little

sugar - 1 tsp

salt as required

oil - 2 tbsp

water - 1 cup

tomato ketchup

corn flour ( mix in little water) - 3 tsp

Method : For Dumpling

For the dumpling vegetables should be finely chopped, using a food chopper would be better option. Boil the vegetables for just 5 mins, and drain all the water. To the vegetable add all the (dumpling) ingredients and mix well and roll into small (golf) balls. Deep fry the dumplings in oil till it turns to a golden brown colour. If the dumpling breaks add little more rice to the mixture as it gives a kind of binding. Just this fried dumpling by itself would taste really good. (trust me try one).

For Sauce
Heat oil in a non stick saucepan, add the finely chopped garlic, ginger and fry for couple of mins. See to it you don't burn the garlic. Add the onions and green chili and fry well. Keep adding all the remaining (sauce) ingredients one by one except water and corn flour.

This dish is really hot, by adding sugar it would give little sweetness to the dish which I like it, if you like it hot don't add the sugar. Now the dry sauce is ready. If you want dry manchurian add the fried dumplings to the sauce, mix carefully and the dry vegetable manchurian is ready.

If you want your dish little gravy (which I made today), add the water to the dry sauce and let it boil for few mins and now add the corn flour mixed with water spoon by spoon. This will thicken the gravy. Last add the fried dumplings and garnish with spring onion(optional). This dish goes very well with cooked plain basmati or fried rice. Enjoy!!!