Go Back

Gopi Manchuria – An Indian In China? (Cauliflower Indian-Chinese Style)

Gopi is a common name in some parts of India even though I personally do not know anyone called Gopi. Recently however, I met my first Gopi, Gopi Manchuria to be more precise, but let me start at the beginning.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cauliflower medium sized (broken into medium sized florets)
  • 2 tbsps spring onion chopped greens , for garnishing

For the marinade:

  • 3 tbsps soya sauce
  • 1/2 tsp pepper freshly crushed
  • 1/2 tsp garlic , minced (or paste)
  • 1/2 tsp ginger , minced (or paste)
  • to taste salt

For the batter:

  • 1 onion small , finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup corn starch
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 3/4 cup water about

For the** **sauce****:

  • 1/2 cup tomato ketchup
  • 1/2 tsp red chilli sauce

Instructions
 

  • 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 u2013 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.
  • 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.
  • Nandita makes a Steamed Vegetable Manchurian in Gravy which involves no deep frying at all and is much healthier on the whole.
  • A&N, two relucutant chefs have their own version which they call Pseudo Gobi Manchurian, where the cauliflower is stir-fried rather than deep-fried.
  • P.S.** This post is just a humourous take on some incidents in my life and not intended to poke fun at or hurt any sentiments.

Notes