Ingredients:


1 medium sized cauliflower (broken into medium-sized florets)

oil for deep frying

2 tbsp chopped spring onion greens, for garnishing


For the marinade:

3 tbsps soya sauce

1/2 tsp freshly crushed pepper

1/2 tsp garlic, minced (or paste)

1/2 tsp ginger, minced (or paste)

salt to taste


For the batter:

1 small onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup corn starch

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

about 3/4 cup water


For the sauce:

1/2 cup tomato ketchup

1/2 tsp red chilli sauce*



Method:


Mix together all the ingredients for the marinade in a bowl. Put the cauliflower florets in the bowl, and mix well so they're well coated with the marinade. Let them soak in the marinade for about 20 minutes.

In the meanwhile, mix together all the ingredients for the batter in another bowl. Add the water carefully so that batter has a reasonably thick coating consistency.

Heat the oil for deep frying.
Remove 3 – 4 florets (at a time) from the marinade, with a spoon. Drain off the excess marinade from the florets; dip them in the batter so they're well coated with the batter. Carefully drop the batter coated florets, as one "lump" into the hot oil. You can deep fry about 5 or 6 such "lumps at a time. Fry the cauliflower fritters, over medium heat, till they're crisp and a nice brown in colour. Remove and drain on paper towels.

Do this frying no more than about half an hour before serving, as these cauliflower fritters tend to lose their crispness after a while.


For making the sauce:

*I sometimes have a bottle of "hot and sweet chilli sauce" on hand. If I have that, then I use about 1 1/2 tbsp of this (it's not as spicy as red chilli sauce) instead of red chilli sauce.

Pour the chilli sauce and the tomato ketchup into remaining marinade (after the cauliflower florets have all been fried). Mix well with a spoon and pour into a pan. Heat the sauce just till it starts bubbling. Take the pan off the heat.

This sauce should be a bit on the thicker side. If you feel it is too thick, you may add a couple of spoons of water to thin it down slightly, before taking the sauce off the stove.
I have seen "Manchurian" dishes where the sauce is thick and just coats the dumplings and some where the sauce is a little thinner and more like gravy.


To serve:

Place the fried cauliflower dumplings in a serving bowl and pour the sauce over the dumplings evenly covering them completely. Garnish with chopped spring onion greens and serve warm, with noodles or rice.
This recipe serves 4.

If you would like a slightly different take on the Gobi Manchurian, I can recommend two fellow food bloggers' recipes, because I have personally tried them out. Both the recipes are much lower in calories too.