Idli Manchurian

I tasted this recipe for the first time about three years back at one of my friend Jenu's Party. It was like Love at First Taste... I am a lover of Chinese food and this dish with fried Idlies was a good starter that everyone at the party enjoyed the best. The very next week, I invited my friend Jenu to my home and we prepared the dish at my home. My husband liked it so much, that next day he took the leftover to his office. I have to say my spirit of cooking started since then.. 


Soon, this dish became very common in my kitchen when there were guests, parties, and sometimes as weekend snacks, like that... This is very simple to prepare with left over Idlis. Now-a-days, I cook more Idlis to prepare this dish. I am so excited and happy to share this recipe in my blog and I want to give my best for this recipe, that I decided to shoot a short video with the help of my husband, Ganesh. 


Here follows the Ingredients and the method and  have a look at my video clicking the link at the end.


Ingredients:

Idli (medium)             6
Ginger                       1" (chopped)
Garlic                        2-3 pods (chopped)
Onion                        1 medium (chopped in large pieces)
Capsicum                   1/2 (chopped in large pieces)
Dry Red Chilly             3 - 4
Soy sauce                  1 tbsp
Sweet Chilly sauce      1/2 -  1 tsp
Tomato Ketchup         1 - 2 tbsp
Pepper powder           1/2 - 1 tsp
Salt                            to taste
Spring Onions             1/2 cup
Oil                              For frying




Method:


Refrigerate the Idlis for 6-8 hours if possible. Heat the Oil for frying the Idlis. Cut the Idlis into four peices. Deep fry the Idly pieces in oil till its light golden and crisp outside. Overfrying the pieces can make it hard to absorb the sauces later during the preparation. 










Soak 3-4 dry red chilly in just enough water to immerse for 20-30 minutes. Blend them and make a paste.


Now,
1.  Heat a pan on medium flame. Add 2-3 tbsp of oil. Add the chopped ginger and chopped garlic and saute till light brown.
2.  Add one medicum onion cut in large pieces and saute till it becomes glacy
3.  Add half capsicum cut in large pieces and fry for 2-3 minutes only.
4.  Add the red chilly paste we had prepared and saute for a minute.
5.  Then add soy sauce 1 tbsp, sweet chilly sauce 1/2 - 1 tsp, tomato ketchup 2 tbsp and saute well for another 2 minutes
6.  Then add pepper powder and salt and again saute for 1-2 minutes
7.  Now, we can add the fried idlies to this and saute till it gets coated with the sauces well.
8.  Once coated well, fry for another 2-3 minutes.
9. Finally, add chopped spring onions, reserving some for garnishing at the end and saute for a minute or two.
10. Switch off the heat. Add rest of the spring onions and saute once.


Note:  


The no of red chilly paste we are using to prepare the paste depends on how much hot we prefer our dish.  


You can always add more tomato ketchup at the end, to make it sweet for kids.




Watch the video here: