Veg Manchurian

Our summer holidays used to be with reading books, visiting book stores, borrowing books from a library, or cursive writing (popularly termed as copywriting) and not to forget storytelling. Of course along with all the playtime and cooking experiments etc :).

Now we have transferred that love for books to our kids! And we buy books quite frequently. But when the lockdown came in, we started looking out for other options to get access to the reading material. We were amazed to see the hidden world out there - audiobooks, documentaries, etc. But nothing can beat the thrill of holding a book and reading it none the less still enjoyed the online version.

With this, our older one loves storytelling and the younger one is an ardent listener to her brother. He comes up with all the audio/visual effects and makes it enjoyable. They go on and on whether its a mythological or a fairytale. We felt this comes naturally to a few of them - just let go of yourself and not self-conscious, you can tell a story. I guess that's how our folktales and other traditional stories came up. Especially when you don't have access to books, storytelling becomes a sharing of quality.
Technology is for now but when sharing happens it's for life! "This is the best investment we can make for our kids".

And thus, a time for virtual cuddle ups - introduced my son for story writing on https://radiancestories.blogspot.com/ and he is enjoying penning down the tales in his own words.

Ingredients
For Manchurian balls
Carrot grated - 1
Cabbage shredded - 5 tbsp
Spring Onions chopped - 5 tbsp
Onions finely chopped - 1/2
Ginger garlic grated - 1 tsp
Chilli sauce - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Plain flour/Maida - 2 tbsp
Cornflour - 2 tbsp
Oil for deep frying

For gravy
Oil - 2 tbsp
Ginger grated - 1 inch
Garlic grated - 3 cloves
Green chillies slit - 1
Spring Onion chopped - 4 tbsp
Onion finely chopped - 1/2
Capsicum sliced - 1/2
Vinegar - 2 tbsp
Soya sauce - 2 tbsp
Chilli sauce - 1 tsp
Tomato sauce - 2 tbsp
Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Water - 1 1/4 Cup

For slurry
Corn flour - 2 tbsp
Water - 1/4 cup

Method

• In a large bowl, place the Carrots, Cabbage, Onions, Spring Onions, Ginger, and Garlic.
• Next, add the Salt and Chilli sauce. Mix well.
• Further, add Maida and Corn flour and mix well. Form this into a soft dough.
• Now shape the dough into small balls and deep fry them on medium heat until golden brown in colour.
• Drain them on a kitchen towel and keep it aside.
• In another large wok, heat oil and saute the ginger-garlic, chilies and spring onions.
• Add Onions and stir fry on high flame.
• Next to this add the capsicum and further stir fry.
• Then add the Soya sauce, vinegar, tomato sauce, chilli sauce, pepper powder, and salt. Stir fry making sure all the sauces are combined well.
• To this add the water and boil on medium heat.
• Now, in another small bowl, mix together the cornflour and water to form a smooth paste.
• Add this to the above gravy and continue to boil until the gravy thickens and is glossy.
• Add in the fried veg manchurian balls and remaining spring onions and mix well.
• Veg Manchurian is ready to be served with fried rice!