Water chestnut, mushroom and broccoli stir fry

I've seen these water chestnuts (singhada) a lot around here...never tasted them before, but seen them at roadside stalls, steamed and served up especially during winter..

They don't look very pretty, and they don't have a distinct taste of their own, but having read about these used in stir frys, I decided to give it a shot..
Once they were cleaned and peeled, the texture was like any other tuber. It added to the crunch in this dish, but would I like it on its own, I'm not so sure !



To clean these, I first put them in a big bowl of water and washed them. Then used a knife to peel the skin off. Washed them again and cut them in slices



What you need -

3-4 cloves garlic
1 fresh red chilli / red capsicum chopped
1 small broccoli cut into florets
2 cups mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp sugar
1 cup chopped water chestnuts
1 tbsp sesame oil

What you do with it -

Heat the oil in a wok and add chopped garlic
Add broccoli and water chestnuts and sprinkle a little water over it
Turn heat on high and allow the broccoli to cook slightly
Add the mushrooms and chilli / capsicum along with soy sauce and vinegar
Add salt and pepper and sugar and stir on high heat till the sauces are absorbed
Serve with fried/steamed rice or noodles

Orange Glazed Sesame Vegetables

Back in Bangalore, we had the super fast home delivery of Chinese food. There is this chain of restaurants called Chung Wah and their exclusive home delivery outlets are called Chung's kitchen...We had one of these just up the road from our place and we'd order out often. Once I make the call, I'd set out the plates and forks and the it really needed just that much time for the delivery boy to appear at our doorstep with the food !! It was really that fast...

Here, we need to do a bit of planning and reservations before we head out for a decent Chinese meal...This cuisine doesnt seem to be very popular here and a few places I tried serve noodles with a whole lot of tomato ketchup, passing it up as Chinese food...



On one of these dull rainy days last week, I was really craving for Chung Wah style chinese food - it would have been ideal to make some gobi manchurian and noodles - the quintessential Bangalorean Chinese, but since I didnt have most of what was required, I got down to making this from Nita Mehta's book...

I had never tried using orange juice in my cooking, so settled on this recipe - it turned out really nice and went very well with rice...

What you need -

100 gm paneer or enough to make about 6-7 strips
1 green / red capsicum
1 cup button mushrooms
broccoli / babycorn (didnt have these)
1 cup orange juice
2 tbsp soya sauce
1 tsp cornflour
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp peanuts
oil
salt and pepper
pinch of sugar

What you do with it -

Roast sesame seeds ad peanuts on a tava or pan till golden
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large pan and add the paneer stripsand stir fry till it turns brown. Remove the strips and keep aside
To the same pan, add the vegetables you are using. Stir fry for 2-3 mins
Mix soya sauce, orange juice and cornflour in a cup till its blended well
Stir this mixture in to the pan with the vegetables
Cook for 4-5 mins till the sauce thickens well
Add the sesame seeds, peanuts, salt, pepper, sugar and the paneer pieces
Cook for a minute more and serve hot with rice