Phool Gobi/Cauliflower Manchurian

Phool Gobi/Cauliflower Manchurian is a Indo – Chinese dish popular in India. This dish is available in most of the restaurants. Children like this dish very much.

I prepare this dish occasionally at home as it involves deep frying of cauliflower. For the purpose of publishing as a post in this blog, I prepared this dish now.

Cauliflower is known as Phool Gobi in Hindi.

Ingredients

For Manchurian

• Cauliflower florets – from one medium size flower
• All purpose flour/maida – half cup
• Corn flour – half cup
• Black Pepper powder – quarter teaspoon
• Ginger garlic paste – half teaspoon
• Soy sauce – half teaspoon
• Red chilli powder – half teaspoon
• Ajinomoto – pinch (optional)
• Salt – as per need
• Oil – for deep frying

For sauce

• Spring onion – small bunch
• Onion – 4 no
• Green chilli – 3 no
• Tomato sauce – 4 tablespoon
• Soy sauce – 1 tablespoon
• Corn flour – 1 teaspoon
• Garlic – 10 cloves
• Ginger – one inch long piece
• Ajinomoto – pinch (optional)
• Sugar – half teaspoon
• Salt – as per taste
• Oil – 1 tablespoon

Method

Preparation of Phool Gobi/Cauliflower

• In a big pan, boil enough water with little turmeric powder and salt; add cauliflower florets when water starts boiling.

• Switch off fire, keep the pan closed for 5 minutes; then drain water and keep the partially cooked cauliflower florets in open air for some time.

• Now in a bowl mix corn flour, all purpose flour, red chilli powder, pepper powder, salt, Ajinomoto, ginger garlic paste; add water little by little to make a thick paste/batter; add soy sauce finally and mix well.

• Heat oil in a pan, dip half boiled cauliflower florets in the batter and deep fry till crisp; keep deep fried cauliflower florets on a kitchen tissue to absorb excess oil.

Sauce for Phool Gobi/Cauliflower Manchurian

• Chop finely onion, ginger, garlic, green chilli and the bulbs of spring onion; keep the leaves of spring onion to garnish the dish before serving.

• Heat a pan with oil; add above chopped items and fry till soft (also by now the colour changes to golden); now add salt, Ajinomoto, soy sauce, tomato sauce, sugar and some water.

• Let this boil for few seconds; now mix corn flour with little water and add in the boiling sauce; cook for few more seconds; corn flour helps to make the sauce thick and gives a glace look to the sauce.

Serving

• Mix enough quantity of sauce with deep fried cauliflower.

• Garnish with some spring onion leaves and serve immediately.

Tips

• Quantity of spices like green chilli and soy sauce can be varied to suit your taste.
• Thickness of the sauce can be varied to suit your requirement.