Gobi Manchurian

It is surprising, but I had never eaten gobi manchurian while I was in India. I finally tasted this three years ago at a Udipi restaurant and I just loved it. Left me wondering why I hadn't ever tried out this dish earlier. It was very spicy and tasty. I have been thinking of cooking this for a long time, however I am not very keen of making fried food at home except for special occasions.
Now, I had half a cauliflower left over this weekend from another dish I made, and I thought why not whip this up for a nice Saturday lunch. Of course, I didn't want to fry the cauliflower, so I thought why not bake it?! And I must say it was a brilliant idea. I baked the cauliflower for half an hour till the florets were wonderfully crisp and then added it to the sauce. The end result was just so tasty and healthy too. I am sure I am going to make this version of gobi manchurian often. No more waiting for three more years!

Ingredients
1 cup tomato sauce
2 tsp chilli paste
4 cloves of garlic - finely chopped
1 cup of green onion leaves - chopped
1 green chilli - finely chopped
1/2 a large yellow onion or 1 small yellow onion
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp vinegar
salt to taste
1/4 cup water
1/2 cauliflower - florets separated
1/2 cup all purpose flour
4 tbsp corn starch
salt to taste
pepper to taste - i put in lots of pepper to make the florets spicy
2 tbsp oil

Method
To prepare the florets
Wash the florets well, keep them in a bowl of water with a little salt added to the water. Mix together the all purpose flour, 2 tbsp corn starch, salt and pepper. Dredge the wet florets in this flour mixture. Heat the overto 425F. Arrange all the florets on a baking sheet and bake for about 30 mins. The florets will turn a little brown, dry and will become crispy. Then add 1/2 tbsp oil into a pan and then fry the florets in this pan for about 2 mins. This will give the florets a fried texture without all the oil.

To prepare the sauce
Heat 1.5 tbsp oil in a pan. Saute the onions, garlic and the green chilli till cooked. Add the tomato sauce and chilli paste. Cook this till the sauce is completely cooked and started to separate from the oil. To this add the vinegar, soy sauce. Mix together the remaining 2 tbsp corn starch and water and form a slurry. Add this to the sauce. Cook this till the slurry is cooked through and transparent. Add 3/4 cup of green onions. Cook for the onions for a minute. Add the florets to the sauce.  The manchurian is ready. Serve as an appetizer.

Tips
This is an excellent dish to serve as an appetizer with just enough gravy to coat the cauliflowers. Its easy to scale up this dish, especially the baked version. You do not need to stand at the stove frying all the florets. Just put all of them on a baking sheet, put in the oven and check every 15 minutes till crips. Wonderful for potlucks. Garnish with the remaining green onions.