Once upon a time mom made corn rice with duck curry for an Easter and ever since that Easter this corn rice has resurrected many a times, in various avatars. I cooked it in chicken stock once and gave it a Chinese twist. Sometime back I added some schezwan sauce and spiced this rice a bit. This time I did something outrageous. I added cake seeds to the rice for a sweet flavor and crunchy texture. Now for the manchurian I must admit this recipe is a cheat’s guide to chicken manchurian, since I had to prepare this in hurry, I omitted the making of chicken balls from scratch. Yep, I wanted boneless chicken balls for the manchurian rather the normal batter fried chicken pieces. So I sourced the chicken meatballs from Godrej’s yummiez and made the gravy for my home made schezwan. This is a super easy combo that you can try with a baby in the kitchen in 45 minutes especially if you stock frozen corn and meatballs in your freezer. Indo-Chinese is not my favourite cuisine but it so happens that my guests often request for Chinese. If you do intend to do Chinese I would advise you to be more bold and go beyond the soy sauce. Do try some star anise and cake seeds and bring in some new flavors to your dish, red wine is also a warm welcome in the form of ingredients. I sourced some chicken stock powder recently from a store that sold stuff in wholesale for caterers. I know it is not easy to come across this but I assure you, this chicken stock powder did the trick for me, my rice tasted like chicken soup yet I did not need to add chicken pieces to the rice. Adding some chicken or veg stock instead of plain water will elevate your mediocre fried rice to a whole new level. On this note I leave you all to the recipe part, and Happy New Year folks!!
Ingredients for Corn Rice
Frozen Corn- 250 g
Basmati Rice- 3 cups
Cake seeds- 2 tsp
Onion- 2
Salt- 1 tsp
Pepper- 1 tsp
Chicken stock- 1 litre
Oil- 2 tbsp
Directions
To cook the corn rice begin by cooking the rice with 6 cups of water till it is half cooked. Drain it in a colander and pour ice cold water to prevent the rice from cooking further. Meanwhile in a large casserole heat the oil and add the cake seeds. Once the cake seed splutters, add the diced onion and saute till the onion softens. Do not brown the onions. Add the corn and salt after the onion softens and saute for 2-3 minutes. Now pour the chicken stock and add the pepper. Bring the stock to boil before adding the half cooked rice. Cook the rice over low flame for 15 minutes or until the rice is cooked. Do not overcook the rice it should be fluffy. Keep fluffing the rice in between using a fork rather a spoon or spatula while cooking the last 15 minutes. Once done do not cover with a lid. Leave the rice open to keep it moist and soft. Covering the rice with lide might add condensed droplets from the heat and make the rice soggy/wet rather dry and fluffy.
Ingredients for Chicken Ball Manchurian
Chicken Balls- 25 ( I used Yummiez by Godrej)
Bell Peppers- 3
Onion- 2
Ginger- 1 inch piece
Garlic- 6 cloves
Green Chilies- 6
Soy Sauce-3 tbsp
Star anise-2
Salt- 1/2 tsp
Chili flakes- 3 tsp
Cake seeds- a pinch
Fish sauce- 1/2 tsp
Corn flour- 4 tbsp
Water- 1 cup + 1/4 cup
Oil- 1/2 cup
Directions
Heat half the oil and deep fry the chicken balls. Drain the chicken balls when they are golden brown and set them aside. In the same pan which has leftover grease from the fried chicken balls, add the remaining oil and saute the cake seeds and star anise. After 2-3 minutes the flavour of star anise and cake seeds would have infused into the oil. Now add the finely chopped onion and saute till they soften a bit. The onion should have a crunchy feel so do not over cook them. Add the minced ginger and garlic and give the pan and toss. Add the chili flakes, soy sauce and fish sauce and bring the gravy to a boil. Add the water slowly and give the gravy a stir, simmer it till it reduces to half. Add the slit green chilies and julienned bell peppers at this point. Heat 1/4 water in a microwave oven and mix the cornflour in it. Add the fried meat balls to the gravy and bring the gravy to a boil. Add salt and let the gravy simmer for 2 minutes.
Before taking the gravy off the flame add the cornflour mixed with water. It is ideal to strain the cornflour mixture into the gravy to avoid lumps. Bring the curry to a final boil and switch off immediately. You will notice that the gravy has thickened suddenly. Serve with the corn rice immediately. The last step to add corn flour is totally optional, I do it if I have corn flour in m pantry . Omitting this step might make your gravy a little runny but it will not bring a difference in flavour.
Bon Apetit and Happy New Year. Our blog was getting acclimatized to the new changes and has finally found stability. So you will now see frequent posts here. Hope you enjoy this year with us. Do write to us ( yep we are us a big group that includes me , my hubby, my kiddo, my bro-in- law and my cat). Together we make ooonuready happening. It gets nosy and irritating at times, but without any of these individuals this blog would not reach to this day and I am grateful to god, for having brought these inspiring people ( yep including our cat) into this family. In fact my bro- in-law and hubby left the house with the kiddo for a walk to let me complete this post and what more could I ask for? Tomorrow we have declared a slow cooker day so stay tuned for some meaty encounters ;)
