Dry Veggie manchurian

I love indo-chinese food and especially all kinds of manchurians! It’s just so yummy! Another friend of mine also likes manchurian so I thought why not make some and then all of us can savor it! I found this recipe by Tarla Dalal (she’s my trusted source for most Indian recipes – except south Indian recipes). I wouldn’t say I followed the exact proportions, just went with ballpark measurements.

Ingredients

For The Manchurian Balls
2 cups finely chopped cabbage
1/4 cup finely chopped spring onions whites and greens (I didn’t have these so skipped them)
1 cup grated carrot
1/4 cup cornflour
1/4 cup plain flour (maida)
2 tsp finely chopped green chillies
1 tsp finely chopped ginger (adrak)
2 tsp finely chopped garlic (lehsun) (skipped this as well since wasn’t sure if DH would like the taste of raw garlic)
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper (kalimirch) to taste
oil for deep-frying

For The Dry Sauce
2 tsp cornflour
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp finely chopped green chillies
1 tsp finely chopped ginger (adrak)
1 1/2 tsp finely chopped garlic (lehsun)
1/2 cup finely chopped spring onions whites and greens
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp red chilli sauce
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper (kalimirch) to taste
1 tbsp finely chopped spring onion greens

Method:

1. I chopped the cabbage and carrot using a food processor.
2. Combine all the ingredients along with 2 tbsp of water in a deep bowl and mix very well.
3. Divide the mixture into 14 equal portions and shape each portion into a ball (if you find it difficult to form balls, sprinkle a little water).
4. Heat the oil in a deep non-stick pan and deep-fry the balls, a few at a time, on a medium flame till they turn golden brown in colour from all the sides. Drain on an absorbent paper and keep aside.

For the sauce

1. Combine the cornflour and ¼ cup of water in a bowl, mix well and keep aside.
2. Heat the oil in a broad non-stick pan, add the green chillies, ginger, garlic and spring onion whites and greens and sauté on a high flame for a few seconds.
3. Add the soy sauce, vinegar, tomato ketchup, red chilli sauce, cornflour-water mixture, salt and pepper, mix well and cook on a high flame for 1 minute.
4. When you are ready to serve (do not do this ahead of time):
1. If there was a gap between when you made the sauce to when you are ready to serve, the sauce would have thickened. That is how cornflour is. So add some water and heat it. Bring it to the original consistency.
2. Add the manchurian balls to the dry sauce, toss gently and cook on a high flame for 1 minute.
3. Switch off the flame, add the spring onion greens.
4. Serve immediately.

Animal Farm

Author: George Orwell

I was looking for books to read when I remembered that I’d been wanting to read Animal Farm for a long time. I had heard a lot about this book so when it finally came up in my library queue, I was so excited! This book did not disappoint me – it was so interesting! The edition that I had, had a preface about George Orwell – what his political inclinations were, how he came about to write this book, his writing style etc. That was the icing on the cake! Fun fact – George Orwell was born in India (to his british parents). It turns out this story is a satire on Soviet Union. To me it felt like this is how most of the world works.

George Orwell’s writing style is very easy going while at same time it’s not as casual as having a conversation. It felt like just right to me. Left to myself, would have loved to finish this book in a few hours but you know how life goes! The story is about a farm where there are a bunch of animals. They have a human owner and his human employees. The humans are detested by the animals for they do not treat them well. No surprises so far. Some animals sow the idea of a rebellion amongst all the other animals and while the animals feel that they would never be able to do such a thing, one day they drove the humans out of the farm and became the owners of the farm. Since the animals don’t like humans and the other farms are run by humans – they do not interact with the other farms. They would like to spread their word to other animals on these farms that they can also take over their farms. However, that doesn’t happen. At this point, it was a true democracy – for the people, by the people and of the people. All the animals are very happy because they are all equals. Everybody (mostly) works equally hard, they get bumper harvests, are well fed and very happy. Slowly and gradually, as time goes by, without anybody realizing some animals get more power and better status than other animals. They now have a leader amongst them who dictates who does what and how the farm should be. This change in dynamics is so interesting to read and love how the author has shown the progression. I will leave the rest for you to read.

While reading the book, I was thinking isn’t this how real world is? Which is what made it all the more engrossing. Highly recommend reading this book!

Vacationland: True stories from painful beaches

Author: John Hodgman

I came upon this book when I was searching Amazon for some book in the humor category. I feel it’s always so hard to find books with humor. There are so many thrillers, drama, etc but humor – nada! This book disappointed to me. It was not like Where’d you go Bernadette or Sex Lives of the cannibals. It was more regular conversational humor – that you and I would add to our conversations. The author talks about his life at his vacation home – how it come about to be, what were his experiences and so on. Honestly nothing much to say about this book. It is more of narration but a funny bit here and there.