Gobi Manchurian is an Indo-Chinese fried cauliflower dish served in a Manchurian sauce. It’s a popular evening snack available at local food carts and restaurants.
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Gobi Manchurian
Gobi Manchurian is a sweet, spicy and tangy, deep fried cauliflower appetizer made with fried cauliflower in a Manchurian sauce.
Blanched cauliflower is deep fried with a cornflour/flour batter and swirled is a delicious base prepared with soy sauce, tomato ketchup, vinegar and generous amount of onion, ginger, garlic, spring onions and green chillies.
You can find Gobi Manchurian in roadside food carts, “Chinese” restaurants and even as part of the menu at weddings and special events.
A Small History of “Chinese Cusine” in India
The entry of Chinese cuisine in India dates back to a couple of hundred years ago when a few hundred Chinese escaped war and famine. They landed close to the city of Kolkata, where they set up shops that served food from their culture. This was the origin point for Chinese cuisine to infiltrate in its various forms that we see now.
Gobi Manchurian truly won the hearts of Bangalore localities when it started getting popular in the late 90s and early 2000s. A lot of Chinese restaurants opened up, as did food carts with their take on this flavour bomb of a dish. A raining evening Bangalore meant getting a parcel of Gobi Manchurian from the local food cart! There still exists one such cart guy till date, for almost 28 years- Ravi Gobi. Check him out if you are in Bangalore.
If you want to know more about Indo-Chinese cuisine, check out this excellent article.
https://www.slurrp.com/article/origin-of-chicken-manchurian-a-culinary-whodunit-1680523088755
Ingredients to make Gobi Manchurian
Main Ingredients
Cauliflower – Buy the freshest Gobi available to you. For this recipe, you will need a cauliflower that weighs around 600-800 grams. This will yield a plate of Gobi Manchurian that serves 2-3 people.
Corn Flour – One of the principal ingredients in any Indo-Chinese recipe is corn flour. For this recipe, you will need 6-7 tablespoons of cornflour. One part is for coating the florets for deep frying, the other part is to make the Manchurian sauce.
Kashmiri Red Chilli powder – Red Chilli powder adds flavour and colour to the cornflour. It makes the Gobi Manchurian look red without having to use food colouring.
Salt and pepper – seasoning is a crucial part of any Indo-Chinese cuisine. Add salt and pepper to the cornflour to give the fried florets some flavour. Else you will have bland florets coated in a flavourful sauce.
Cooking Oil – You may use any refined vegetable oil. You will approximately need 3/4 cup of cooking oil for deep frying the cauliflower florets.
Ingredients for the Manchurian sauce
Onions, Spring Onions, Green Chillies, Ginger and garlic – These are the ingredients that provide the base for the sauce in which they will coat the Gobi Manchurian.
Soy sauce, red chilli sauce, ketchup, vinegar and sugar – These ingredients provide the dish with that much loved oomph that we all love in Gobi Manchurian.
Cornflour Slurry – For this recipe, we require 4-5 tablespoons of cornflour mixed with 70-100 ml of water to make a thin slurry. This slurry will absorb all the flavours from the aforementioned sauces and sit beautifully on the fried gobi florets.
How to make Gobi Manchurian
The prep work
Pull or cut out the individual florets and ensure they are all the same size. If you use different size florets, the cooking time will vary. Once you have your florets ready, dunk all of them in a pot of hot water with a teaspoon of salt. Allow it to blanch for about five minutes. Remove the florets from the hot water and transfer to another bowl.
Sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons of cornflour and ensure each floret has sufficient coating of the cornflour. At this stage, add the salt, pepper and red chilli powder. Toss them all together in the bowl. Once each gobi floret has a coating, you can keep it aside to deep fry.
Dice the onion into small pieces, finely chop the green chillies, garlic and ginger. Wash the spring onions and remove the roots. You can use the white and green parts for the cooking and only the green parts for the garnish at the end.
Mix all the sauces together – soy sauce, vinegar, ketchup, red chilli sauce and sugar.
Prepare the cornflour slurry with 4-5 tablespoons of cornflour and 70-100 ml of water. Make sure the slurry is thin.
Frying the Gobi florets
If you are deep frying, place a Kadai with 3/4 cup of cooking oil and allow it to warm up. Drop the florets one by one and deep fry until each floret is crisp. Drain them on a kitchen tissue paper. This stage will take roughly twenty to thirty minutes, considering how large the cauliflower is and how big your Kadai is.
If you want to bake or air fry the Gobi Manchurian florets, to the bowl of cornflour coated florets, add 2-3 tablespoons of the cooking oil and coat each floret well.
For baking in an oven, preheat at 200C for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, place each floret on a baking tray with a little space. Bake at 200C for 20-25 minutes. Take out the tray at around the 15 minute mark and give it a shake to ensure even baking of each floret.
The same applies to the air fryer as well, but you may have to do in batches since the space available in an air fryer will be lesser. But the air fryer will take less time. Place each floret in the basket and bake at 180C for 10 minutes. Remove the basket around the 5 minute mark and give it a shake to ensure they get fried evenly.
The final cooking part for the Gobi Manchurian
Place a pan on medium heat and add 2-3 tablespoons of cooking oil. Once the oil is warm, add the onions, ginger, garlic, green chillies and spring onions. Cook on a medium to high flame, so that the ingredients cook fast. Now lower the flame, add all the sauces and mix well.
Take the bowl of cornflour slurry and mix it well. You can now add this slurry to the pan and continuously stir the ingredients in the pan while adding it. Cornflour slurry cooks fast and thickens when it comes into contact with heat. So, keep an eye while stirring. If you feel that the sauce looks too thick, you can add a splash of water to thin it down. Do not add too much, otherwise the flavours of the sauces will thin down too.
Now, you add the fried Gobi florets and stir them well so that each floret gets coated well. You can turn off the heat and mix thoroughly. Do a little taste test in between to make sure it is up to the spice you desire.
Garnish your Gobi Manchurian with finely chopped spring onions and serve hot!
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Recipe
Gobi Manchurian
Ingredients
For the cauliflower
- 1 Cauliflower 500-800g
- 8 tbsp. Corn Flour (divided)
- 1 tsp Kashmiri Red Chili Powder for colour, mainly
- Salt and Pepper as per taste
- ¾ cup Cooking Oil for frying the florets
For the sauce
- 1 Onion diced
- 5 cloves Garlic finely chopped
- 2-3 Green chillies finely chopped
- 2-3 sprigs Spring Onions finely chopped
- 1 Green Capsicum a small piece, finely chopped (optional)
- 1 tbsp Red Chilli Sauce
- 1 tbsp Ketchup
- 1 tbsp Vinegar
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 1 tsp Soy Sauce
- 4-5 tbsp Cornflour for the slurry
For Garnish
- Spring Onions for sprinkling on top
Instructions
Prep Work
The Cauliflower – Prep Work
- Put the kettle on or boil a pot of water. You are going to need this to dunk the cauliflower florets to remove any creepy crawlies snuggled inside the florets. We need water's temperature in the range of warm – hot, not boiling hot.
- Cut the cauliflower in such a way that you have small even-sized florets to make it easier to fry. Once you have the florets ready, dunk them in the warm water with a teaspoon of salt. Let it be for 15 minutes. You can use this time to prep other ingredients.
- After 5 minutes, take them out of the water and place in a bowl. (Pick the florets from the water carefully, not disturbing the bottom since you'll find that's where all the dirt has settled)
For the batter – Prep Work
- Mix the dry ingredients for the batter together – Cornflour, red chilli powder, pepper and salt.
- Toss the blanched florets in the cornflour mixture and ensure each floret gets coated evenly.
- Keep a plate with paper towel lined for draining the fried cauliflower.
For the sauce – Prep Work
- Dice the onions, garlic, green chillies, capsicum and spring onions – You want it really small. If you want, the capsicum can be of bigger size, but the rest have to be small.
- Get the sauce ready in a bowl- red chilli sauce, ketchup, sugar, vinegar and soy sauce. It is best to keep them ready in a bowl than adding it directly from the bottles. (I've had instances where a large quantity of soy sauce spilt and the dish ruined)
- Take a 4-5 tablespoons of corn flour and add 70-100 ml of water. Give it a good mix. Your corn flour slurry is ready. Corn flour will sink to the bottom if kept unused for a long time. But you can bring the slurry back to the correct consistency by mixing it before using.
How to make Gobi Manchurian
- The first step is to fry the cauliflower florets. Place the pan of oil on medium-high flame. Dip the gobi floret in the prepared batter and gently place them in the hot oil. Do the frying in batches, you do not want to crowd the oil. It should take anywhere between, 3-5 minutes per batch to achieve that golden brown, crispy texture.
- Drain the golden brown gobi on a paper towel to drain excess oil. Repeat other batches and keep the golden brown delicacies aside.
- Place a fresh pan on medium-low flame, add a tablespoon of cooking oil. Once the oil is hot, add the diced onions, garlic, green chillies and spring onions. Cook it down until the onions are soft.
- Add the prepared sauce mix and give it a good mix.
- Next add the corn flour slurry that you have prepared. Its ok if the flour has settled and water is on top. Just give it a good mix and add it to the pan.
- The corn flour slurry will thicken fast, so keep an eye on it. If you think the sauce has thickened, add a little water.
- This step is the best part – Add the deep fried Gobi to the sauce. Give it a mix and you'll see your Gobi Manchurian coming together. Once the sauce has coated well on the Gobi, your Gobi Manchurian is ready!
- Garnish with spring onion and eat it hot!
Notes
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