CHINDIAN (It's a thing now)

If you refer to my previous post, you’ll know what Chindian is. And if you’re too lazy to do so, it’s Chinese plus Indian. And no, I’m not a loser ‘cause I didn’t make that up. It’s a real restaurant in Mumbai J

Initially I wanted a stir fry recipe from a certain cooking type friend. But since I wanted a little gravy or sauce, I added some water and could conveniently eat it with white rice.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures; I was really hungry lol, so this is all you get. The leftovers! And it’s soooo good!

INGREDIENTS

1 big carrot

1 yellow bell pepper

1 red bell pepper

4 large mushrooms

5 baby corns

3/4^th cup of sweet corn

2 medium sized onions

6 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tsp. ginger paste

1.5 tbsp. honey

1.5 tbsp. soya sauce

1 tbsp. schezwan sauce (I couldn’t open the bottle so I skipped this)

Stock (I used chicken stock)

2 – 3 tbsp. olive oil

2-3 tsp. chili flakes

½ tbsp. corn flour (if you want thicker gravy, I skipped this)

3/4^th – 1 cup of water

Half a lime

What I love about this recipe is it’s so versatile and you can add and subtract ingredients as you like. You can add absolutely any vegetables you want. I tried to make do with whatever was readily available in my fridge. You can add cauliflower, broccoli, capsicum, pakchoy, cabbage etc.

Boil one cup of frozen sweet corn and keep aside. Heat olive oil in a non-stick vessel. When oil is a little hot, add garlic and reduce flame to medium. Add onions and let them become slightly translucent and brown. Then add ginger paste. It will start to splatter, so be careful. Then add the carrots and let it cook for about 2 minutes. Add baby corn and let it cook for another 2 minutes. Add peppers and mushrooms and give it a good stir and leave it to cook for about 2 or 3 minutes more. Add soya sauce, honey and schezwan sauce and stir well. Modify quantity of these 3 ingredients according to your taste. Now what I did was I added water, let it cook for about 5 minutes and then crumbled one Maggi cube into it. You can alternatively add the cube to a cup of warm water and mix well and then pour it into the vegetables. If you’re doing it this way, don’t add extra water. Finally squeeze lime and add corn flour if required. Add the sweet corn last as it is boiled already. Add chili flakes and give it one final stir. Switch off heat when you are satisfied with the consistency of the gravy.

Also note, I don’t use any salt because the stock is fairly salty and the dish doesn’t require more than that. You may add more salt according to your taste. Also, if you wish to keep the gravy light and subtle, you can leave out the schezwan sauce.

It’s a really easy and tasty dish and this serves around 2-3 people. You can have it with white rice.

Let me know how it goes. *makes Chinese eyes and bats eyelashes*