Cantonese Vegetables, The Indo-Chinese Way

Last week my brother suddenly had this craving for Chinese food; more specifically “Indian Chinese.” I guess, the overload of Indian festival food was a trigger for something “different.” 🙂

I have already waxed eloquent on Indo-Chinese or Indian Chinese food in my earlier posts on Vegetable Manchurian and Vegetable Fried Rice.

Anyway, on Anant Chaturdashi, all of us were working from home to avoid the traffic snarls associated with Ganapati Visarjan, and we decided to try this dish from Nita Mehta’s Chinese Cooking and it turned to out be quite a find.

When I was making the gravy for Cantonese Vegetables, I thought it was quite sour. However, after adding the vegetables, it mellowed down. What I liked best about this dish was the crunchiness of the vegetables, and the simple, clean spicy-sour taste of the sauce.

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1. Cabbage – 150 gms
2. Carrots – 2 medium
3. Capsicum – 1 Large
4. Spring Onions – 4
5. Chinese Red Chilli Sauce – 1 tbsp
6. Dark Soy Sauce – 1.5 tbsp
7. Vinegar – 1 tbsp
8. Corn Flour – 2 tbsp
9. Oil – 2 tbsp
10. Water – 2 Cups
11. Salt to Taste

Method

1. Chop the cabbage into 1″ pieces.
2. Peel and cut the carrots into the thin rounds.
3. Cut the capsicum in half, deseed the capsicum, and cut it into 1″pieces.
4. Cut the greens off the capsicum and set them aside.
5. Cut the spring onions into quarters.
6. In a wok, heat the oil.
7. On medium-high heat, stir-fry each of the vegetables separately for 2 minutes.
8. Set aside the vegetables.
9. Boil 2 cups water.
10. Turn the heat to medium-low, and add the red chilli sauce, vinegar, and soy sauce.
11. Dissolve the corn flour in 3 tbsp water and add the gravy.
12. Simmer till the gravy turns thick.
13. Add the vegetables to the gravy and cook for 2 minutes.
14. Add salt as required.
15. Serve immediately with Vegetable Fried Rice or Noodles.

Tip

• Be careful with the salt as soy sauce has quite a bit of salt.
• Serve the Cantonese Vegetables almost immediately after making them, else the vegetables will turn soft.