Aunt Else's Aebleskiver

Who’s ready for aebleskiver?  What, you’ve never heard of aebleskiver?  Well, you won’t be able to say that anymore after we talk about

Aunt Else’s Aebleskiver

Okay, I wouldn’t be surprised if you had never heard of aebleskiver.  I hadn’t until a chance viewing of The Best Thing I Ever Ate on Food Network in which someone (Duff Goldman maybe?) mentioned how much he loved the things.  I didn’t give it much thought until I happened to meet Aunt Else Aebleskiver on Twitter, who started a company selling all organic aebleskiver mixes, complete with their own hardware!

When she offered me a pan, I absolutely jumped at the chance to try them out for myself.  So she sent me Aunt Else’s Aebleskiver Starter Kit (scroll down to the bottom of the page to order one for yourself!) which included my really cool 9 hole aebleskiver pan, a bag of mix, a stainless steel chopstick, and the heat resistant handle cover.  Like it says, it was everything I needed to get started aebleskivering. 

What is an Aebleskiver?

An Aebleskiver is a Danish pastry (and believe me the Danish know pastries.  Think about it, they had one named after them.)   Strangely enough, the term Aebleskiver means “apple slice” since they were originally filled with apples, though more modern versions come filled with any number of savory and sweet combinations.

Personally, I tend to think of it as a pancake dumpling.  When I was mixing the batter, it looked a lot like pancake batter (and bubbled like it, too.)  However, the batter is poured into holes maybe two inches around and fried to make things that look like dumplings.  Top with powdered sugar, maybe a little syrup, and boom!  Aebleskiver.

I love the contrasting textures in the aebleskivers.  The outside of the aebleskiver is firm and tender while the inside is moist, tender, and chewy.  They are a perfect little bite that is surprisingly unsweet without the assistance of the aforementioned powdered sugar.

There is One Problem: Making the Aebleskiver is HARD!

To make an aebleskiver, one must:

1. Season your pan if it’s brand new because Aunt Else just sent it to you.
2. Heat your pan
3. Make your batter
4. Pour in about 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable oil
5. Fill the aebleskiver hole about 90% of the way up
6. Let the oil fry the batter forming a stiff outer edge (this should take as long as it takes to fill the aebleskiver holes)
7. Stick your chopstick or special Aunt Else aebleskiver chopstick into the batter and pull up the already cooked outside and quarter turn.  (The instructions refer to this as turn.  I would have called it a pull or a flip myself since your are pulling the outside out of the pan rather than rotating it.)
8. Wait a bit, turn them again.
9. Finally, turn them a final time.

Now, if you are reading this and thinking “what?”  It’s okay, I was to.  I had to find an online demo of how to make the darn things, like the one Aunt Else has on her Aunt Else’s Organic Aebleskiver homepage.  I would highly recommend you don’t even THINK about making an aebleskiver without watching that video.  Twice.

Even then, it will probably take several tries to really figure out the aebleskivering process.

My hope is that I can get Aunt Else to come on the blog and help us figure out  a few things.

1.  The directions say that the pan should be “hot.”  However, how hot is hot?  And conversely, how hot is too hot?  (I know I found too hot once, but that’s a different story.

2.  When, precisely, do I know that the outside is set.  I think that’s the key to knowing when to turn.

Still, once it’s all said and done, you can truly sit back and say that you have learned a skill only a few possess!  Then you, too, can sit back with a big plate of these little Danish fried goodies and truly enjoy.

Notes I learned the hard way:

• The handle guard that comes with the aebleskiver pan is flammable.  At least I think it’s flammable.  It might be some batter got inside of it and that caught on fire.  One way or the other, don’t leave it on the handle when making aebleskiver.

Milagro Mole Brushed Shrimp

Mole sauce tastes good on beef, burgers, and pork, why not

Milagro Mole Brushed Shrimp

Yes, sadly we have come to the final part of the trinity: the last delicious meal I made from one single bottle of @melanieyunk’s delicious mole sauce that she gave me.  Now, this is the second bottle of Big Acres Gourmet® Milagro Mole® sauce that she’s sent my way.  The first time I blew it all one dish.  The second time I got smart: I spread it out, making not one but three delicious dishes including these beautiful shrimp.

For those who haven’t had the Milagro mole, it’s a little bit heat and a little bit sweet, but it’s really good.  It’s a surprisingly complex mixture of raisins, nuts, chocolate and chilies so it simultaneously excites all your taste buds.  It’s one of those sauces that if the raisins were a little more sweet, the chocolate and chilies a little more savory, or the nuts a little more intense in flavor, the sauce would go from delicately balanced to disastrously awful.

The good news is none of that happens and you get a great sauce for making amazing Tex Mex dishes.

Read the rest of this entry »

So, for the past few days, we’ve been talking about Le Grand’s delicious sauces.  (Read here for an introduction to Le Grand’s gourmet raw sauces.)  Yesterday, we made braised meatballs in sun-dried tomato pesto, today we’re going to try something different:

Cucumber “Fettuccini” with Le Grand Garden Pesto Sauce

So I think in my intro, I said I was going to be making cooked food with Le Grand’s array of gourmet cold pressed, raw sauces.  However, the more I got to thinking about it, the more I wanted to make a raw meal with from the raw sauce.  So, I did!

This is a take on raw stroganoff that we made at the SolFud raw tasting dinner.  However, I took this dish from Russia and sent it to Italy with the help of Le Grand Garden Pesto sauce.

Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you still not on Twitter, what are you waiting for?  If you don’t Tweet, you might not have ever heard of:

Tanka Bars

At least I know I wouldn’t have heard of them.  However, it seems like at least half their marketing team has Twitter accounts, so one day I asked Linda, their head of marketing what, exactly, a Tanka Bar was.  To answer, she offered to send me a box.

So before we get into what, exactly, a Tanka Bar is, we’re going to begin a list of all the things a Tanka Bar is not.

• It’s not a granola bar

I just feel the need to point that out since I thought it was a granola bar until I opened the package and realized either I was either grossly wrong or this was the single most moldy granola bar in the entire world.  Of course, it turned out I was just wrong.

Tanka Bars Are Buffalo Cranberry Bars

Yep, you heard that right.  It’s a mixture of very tender buffalo meat mixed with cranberries.

• It’s not jerky

So once I got over my initial shock and came to grips that what I was about to eat was not, in fact, a granola bar, I got to thinking maybe a Tanka Bar was buffalo jerky.  Wrong again.

Tanka Bars are far too moist and chewy to be jerky.

• It’s not bad

So once I finally got the darned thing in my mouth, I figured out these things are pretty good.

Make no mistake about it, a Tanka Bar is absolutely unlike anything you’ve had before (well unless you’ve had Tanka Bars before I guess.)  Somehow, someway the buffalo and the cranberry just mix together very well.  The Buffalo is mild and salty and savory while the cranberries give it an unexpected sweetness and tang.  I enjoyed them to the point that part of me wanted to chop up a few of them to make taco filling because I just wanted to get that flavor into other dishes.

There’s One Caveat…

I can find no fault with the taste of my Tanka Bars.  However, if you decide to buy one, be prepared.  They’re not exactly pretty.  And while everything looks much the same once you get it in your mouth, we do eat with our eyes first.  If I had any complaints about the bar, that would be it.

With that being said, I’d say go for it.  Try one.  Especially because you have two ways to do it!

Way #1: Win a box

Linda was nice enough to give me a box of Tanka Bars to give away to all of you.  All you need to do is be the first person to tall me what Wagie Yutapi means.  Just leave it in the comments and I’ll be in touch!

Way #2: You’ve got a coupon!

Now, if a treasure hunt is not your thing or maybe you just missed out, you can still get Tanka Bars…and you can get them at a discount.  All you need to do is go to Tanka Bar’s website and enter the coupon code BLOGWELLDONE and receive $5 off your purchase of a box of Tanka Bars.  Let it never be said BlogWellDone.com is not hip to bad economic times.

Two easy ways so that you can enjoy!

Fine dining is very much alive in Kansas City, MO at The American Restaurant.  Located right next to Crown Center, The American is making a name for Kansas City upscale/fine dining cuisine and serves wonderful contemporary American food.

The American and Chef Debbie Gold

Returning to helm the kitchen at The American is Chef Debbie Gold, an easy going, likeable chef who was more than happy to talk cooking.  I got to talk to Chef for a few minutes about her career, the restaurant and all topics food.  Like all of the KC chefs I’ve talked to, I was very impressed with Chef Gold’s passion for food.  For instance, the question “What’s your favorite Spring vegetable?” could not be answered with a single vegetable.

Chef Gold on Molecular Gastronomy

On the topic of trends, she mentioned molecular gastronomy at which point she made a statement I found deeply profound.  It seems Chef Gold is not a huge proponent of molecular gastronomy because, as she put it “We’ve worked so hard to get the chemicals out of our food when we grow it, why would we put it in in the end when we cook it?”  As much of a fan of Chef Richard Blais, the gastronomic wizard from Top Chef, I found myself suddenly calling into question the whole practice.

Why’s She Not Yelling?

Still, what stands out most to me about Chef Gold, other than her food, which we’ll get to in a moment, was just how happy her brigade seemed to be.  I live and die on Gordon Ramsey reruns so I am used to the idea of the chef as screaming slave driver.  A Gordon Ramsey kitchen seems devoid of humor and fun.  From the moment I walked into the kitchen, I could tell her staff was having a good time.  Yes, there was dinner going on, but everyone was all smiles and there was a enthusiasm  in everyone’s work.

Strangely enough, there was no fear Chef Gold was going to break into a tirade of F bombs and screaming.  By the end of the tour, i wanted to work for her.

Lamb Belly and Duck Breast

So, the thing that stands out most about Chef Gold including her food was her food.  She treated me to some of her roast lamb belly (the meat near the stomach, not the stomach itself!) served on top of a green peas with a little splash of what I think was a tomato ginger relish.  This dish reflects both the high and the low point of the meal.

That lamb belly was… supercalifragilisticexpedaladocious.  I seriously can’t think of another word for it.  Granted, I don’t eat a lot of lamb, but the lamb belly I had there was unbelievable.  The best I ever had.  I could cut it with my fork.  It was flavorful, perfectly seasoned with simple salt and pepper, and cooked, I think, just on it’s own fat.  Amazing.  The tomato relish was also wonderful.  It was strong, so there wasn’t much, but it mixed with the lamb and the peas.

Which brings us to the low point.  The peas.  I was not a fan of the peas.  They were a little too al dente for my taste and could have used a little…something else.  It wasn’t bad enough to detract from the lamb, but not perfect.

I also had the La Belle duck breast served on a sunchoke puree with ramps.  The sauce was a Grand Marnier gastrique.  This dish was a total success.  The duck was rich, but tender.  The sunchokes were mild, but worked perfectly with the duck and the broad beans were terrific.  Had I only had this meal, I would have been very happy.  However, after the lamb… well… I can say the duck’s major failing was that it wasn’t a second plate of lamb belly.

All in all, I had a great talk with Chef and a great meal.  The next time you are looking for a fine meal, a place for an anniversary, or just a tremendous view of the city, stop by The American Restaurant.  Ask for the lamb and tell them BlogWellDone sent you.  Enjoy!!

Thanks to the Kansas City Star for the picture.

If you’re looking for the giveaway, scroll down!

Okay, tomorrow starts perhaps the most impressive spectacle in sports: 64 teams, 1 goal.  That’s right, it’s college basketball championship time.  The Big Dance.  The Big Show.  The brackets.  The munchies.

So while I’ve noted that basketball doesn’t really have it’s quintessential meal, it does have snacking!  Lots of snacking on chips, wings, nachos, dips, and all the usual suspects.   So yes, lots of snacking and lots of sitting to boot!

While I would never hope to end snacking and basketball, I do have a thought.  Instead of gorging on chili cheese fries and hot dogs, why not snack on

Matt’s Munchies

Matt’s Munchies, made by Chef Robert’s, are “fruit leathers”, which I think is code for fruit rollup, but instead of being made with dyes and corn syrups and junk, they are made from things you want to eat like mango, bananas, real chocolate, and ginger.  They are also all-natural and gluten, nut, egg, and dairy free.

And oh yeah, they’re AWESOME.

They sent me six flavors:

• Choco Nana
• Apple Pie
• Island Mango
• Ginger Zest
• Mango
• Banana

In packs that were basically about 70 calories each.  I dutifully tried each one and they were great.  If Matt tasted as good as his munchies, I’d eat him.

I think my favorite was the Island Mango.  It was a blend of mango and coconut and had a great texture I wouldn’t expect in a fruit leather.  In close second, though, was the Apple Pie because it tasted like apple pie.  I’ve had a lot of gluten free, all-natural, dairy free snacks that claim to taste like something and they end up tasting kinda like what they’re supposed to.  Not the Apple Pie.  It tasted like honest to goodness cinnamony apple pie.

I think my least favorite was the Ginger Zest, but that’s because I am just not a huge ginger fan.  Nothing against Matt and his munchies, but the Ginger Zest were REALLY gingery.  They weren’t bad, I think they just require someone who likes that flavor.

Matt’s Munchies and Basketball

So I’m absolutely serious.  If you can find them in your local store, when you sit down to watch some hoops, tear into Matt’s Munchies instead of fried hot wings.  Well maybe try Matt’s Munchies instead of only hot wings?  I promise your tastebuds and your waist won’t regret it.

And…I’m Giving Some Away

Chef Robert’s was nice enough to send me a second pack that I can give away to one lucky reader.  All I want you to do is leave me a comment and tell me your favorite healthy snack or a snack you want me to make healthy by March 25th and I’ll draw for a winner.  That person will have a full set of Matt’s Munchies to snack on by the championship game.

Now, get to commenting and enjoy!

(Image from ChefRobertsDirect.com)

It’s 8:30 AM… The time has come to introduce something new… (cue the theme from 2001 please.)

The world of food is all about pairing things that go together: peanut butter and jelly, surf and turf, fried and lean pockets.  All timeless, all delicious.

The world of food is also about pairing food with other great things.  Food + Competition = Top Chef.  Food + Wine = a necessity of life.  Food + Sex = BrokeAssGourmet.com

What is BrokeAssGourmet.com?

You want the scoop?  Here’s esteemed Food Blogger Gabi Moskowitz to explain:

Interview with Gabi

In other words, the recession has hit us all, but so what? We gotta eat.  We gotta drink.  We gotta be merry (and by merry I mean something a bit more adult), right?

Enter BrokeAssGourmet.com.

First off, you get food like this:

• A great meal under $20 that looks and tastes like you paid $200.
• No food from a box with a talking glove on it.
• Tips on stocking your bar on the cheap
• The Chef Challenge: 1 big name chef + $20 + 2 blocks + 1 hour = Dinner?

And we are talking some great meals like veggie lasagna in under 40 minutes, red wine beef stew, and salmon/spinch burgers with cilantro brown rice…

Then you get a twist.

Once you’re done with your meal, it’s time for sex, sex, sex.

Well, kind of.   But if it is, go for it.  Seriously.  You can read blogs later.

Either way, what you you’re gonna get from BrokeAssGourmet.com is sex and advice from Violet Blue, writer for (O) Oprah Magazine and Forbes, and the San Francisco Chronicle’s weekly sex columnist.  Every other week, you’re going to learn how to take the heat you made in the kitchen and move it into the bedroom, the living room, the chimney if there’s room… Oh yeah, it’s going there.

Oh, and did I mention they are launching TODAY.  Like right now.  They wouldn’t let me tell you about the site until it went live.  So go.  Now.

What?  Need More Reasons to go to BrokeAssGourmet.com?

Okay, how about this.  This recipe will be featured on a future post on BrokeAssGourmet.com.  See the price sheet?  See the delicious?  Good…go see the site!!

Kale-Cannelini Soup with Garlic Crostini

This delicious, hearty soup is a great way to show your dinner companion a little love. From the heart-healthy olive oil to the fiber-rich beans and kale, this soup is full of healthful, whole ingredients, so you can feel good about what you’re serving. The crostini is the perfect sponge for sopping up the rich broth and also works nicely served as a large crouton atop the soup. Also, since the soup is a one-pot meal, whomever you’re cooking for can spend less time doing the dishes and more time—ahem—thanking you for all your hard work.
Ingredients
    3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the crostini—pantry item
    4 cloves garlic, chopped, plus 1 clove cut in half for the crostini—pantry item
    3 stems fresh oregano—minced—$2
    1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste—$1
    2 tablespoons red wine vinegar—pantry item
    2 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed–$3
    4 cups water—free!
    salt and freshly ground black pepper—pantry item
    1 small bunch kale, cleaned and chopped (stems removed)—$3
    1 mini baguette–$2

__________________________________________________________

Total Cost of Recipe: $11

Heat oil in a large pot. Add garlic and oregano and cook no more than a minute. Add tomato paste and vinegar, and cook another minute. Add beans and stock and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Add kale and simmer, partially covered, for 1 hour. Season, to taste, again with salt and pepper before serving.

Preheat oven to 375. Slice baguette on a heavy angle to create long slices and drizzle with a little olive oil. Lay the baguette slices on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 6-8 minutes. Rub on both sides with half of a garlic clove and sprinkle lightly with salt. Serve alongside the soup.

—-

I hope you’ve seen why BrokeAssGourmet.com is the only Broke Ass Eating/Sex site I personally recommend with my BlogWellDone seal of approval.  Seriously, though give it a look when you’re not at work.  And enjoy me saying ass.  It’s the only time I’ll ever swear on my blog.  Ass.

Okay, enjoy!!  Ass.

So at some urging from Judy, here is my recipe for fried artichokes, which  was heavily inspired by the same dish at La Bodega in Kansas City, MO.  It is the perfect combination of salt from the “ham” and sweet from the garlic vegannaise.

Fried Artichokes

• 8 large artichokes
• 3 tablespoons corn starch
• 4 slices of tofurkey lunch meat (if you’re not veg, you can substitute ham), halved
• 6 tablespoons of egg replacer
• 2 tablespoons of soy milk
• 1 cup of All Purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• Canola oil for frying

To make the dipping sauce:

• 8 tablespoons of vegannaise
• 1 tablespoon of garlic powder (or roasted garlic)
• Juice of 1/2 of a lemon
• 2 teaspoons of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of sriracha hot sauce

Process the artichokes.  I’m going to defer to eHow until I can get some pictures up.  (I know, I know.)

Dredge the artichokes in corn starch and shake off the excess.  Then wrap the artichoke in half of a slice of the lunch “meat”.  Trim any extra meat so that it wraps around perfectly.   Stick a toothpick through the artichoke so that the lunch meat stays closed.  Let the artichokes sit for 10 minutes to let the cornstarch set.

While the artichokes are resting, mix the egg replacer and soy milk (or eggs and regular milk if you are not vegan) together in one bowl and the flour, garlic, and salt and pepper in another bowl.

After ten minutes, dip the artichokes into the egg mixture and then the flour.  Shake off the excess flour and put on a plate to set.

Bring the frier to temperature while the crust is forming on the artichokes.  Fry the artichokes until golden brown, about 3-5 minutes.

To make the dipping sauce, combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

And so it comes to an end…

In Part 0 of How to Make Tofu That Doesn’t Suck, we looked at all the things you can do to prep your tofu before cooking.  Part 1 covered baking it, Part 2 deep frying it.  Part 3 examined how to stir fry tofu.  Part 4 was a list of sauces that go well with toful.

And now we are ready for the conclusion.  The grand finale…it’s Ma Po Tofu.

Ma po tofu (which is Chinese for so good you smack your mother POW! Okay, not really, it’s probably named after a Chinese street vendor named Ma who was probably fictious) is a traditional Sichuan dish that is made with tofu, ground pork, and a lot of chilis, including the infamous Sichuan peppercorns.

However, for me, this dish will always be special because it was the first Chinese meal I ate after becoming vegetarian.  It was so good and yet it didn’t have any meat…

So, I pretty much decided I had to learn how to cook it.  Instead of pork, I decided to go with seitan which has lead to this…

Ma Po Tofu

• 1 block of extra firm tofu
• 1 tablespoon of Sichuan peppercorns (optional)
• 4 Sichuan chilies
• 2 tablespoons of peanut oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon of ginger, minced
• 4 spring onions, whites sliced and the greens cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 package of seitan, minced
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of broth
• 1 tablespoon of Sichuan hot bean paste
• 2 tablespoons of corn starch

Okay, let’s start with a couple of notes.  First, yes the recipe is correct.  Use extra firm tofu.  Traditionally it is made with soft tofu, but I think by now you know what I think of soft tofu.

Secondly, substitutions.  If you do not have Sichuan peppercorns (available at Dean & Deluca and Whole Foods, but not at my local Asian market (?!)), omit.  Regular peppercorns are not the same.  Secondly, if you do not have Sichuan bean paste…go to the Asian market.  It is pretty much the key to this dish tasting right.

Okay, back to the recipe:

Press the tofu, cut it into 1/2 inch cubes, and prepare using your favorite method.  If you are in a hurry, you do not even need to press it, but of course, it makes the tofu taste better.

In a wok, roast the peppercorns until they become fragrant (about 1 minute) and remove from the wok.  Grind.  Dry roast the chilies until they turn brown and remove.  Smash in a food processor.

Add the peanut oil to the wok and let it get very hot.  Add the sliced spring onion whites, garlic and ginger to the wok.  Stir fry for 30 seconds, then add the seitan and stir fry for another 2 minutes.

Add the soy sauce, broth, Sichuan hot bean paste, androasted chilies, and bring to a boil.  Add the tofu into the wok and let it cook for 2-3 minutes.

In a small bowl, mix the corn starch with the corn starch to create a slurry.   Add that to the wok and stir until the sauce becomes thick.

Garnish with spring onion greens and Sichuan peppercorns.

Enjoy!

And this concludes my five (really six part series) on how to make tofu not suck.  I am going to be taking these posts, adding some pictures, and adding a few more recipes.   Who knows, I might even proofread.  Then I’ll turn all that into a PDF and put on the site for print and download.  More on that later!  Until then, start making tofu that doesn’t suck!

It was a chance encounter that first led me to Masalas, an authentic Indian restaurant near my local Whole Foods. I had no idea that a simple grocery run would, in the end, leave me literally so full I could not have had another bite.

The building that Masalas currently occupies used to be a Baja Fresh, but it had closed down. The old Baja Fresh’s signage was quickly replaced with “Masalas Authentic Indian Cuisine…Coming Soon.” I thought it was a clever name, but I did not really give it a second thought until months after the sign change.

It was pure dumb luck I was running to the grocery store with my son the night Masalas decided to give its kitchen a dry run. Noticing that people were walking into the restaurant and sitting down, I let curiosity get the better of me and drug my son into the place, which was still not-so-stylishly decorated in the black-and-white checked flooring and stark white counters of Baja Fresh and asked if they were open.

Chandra, the project manager in charge of launching the restaurant told me they were testing the kitchen and insisted I try some of the food. He sat me down and started off with a carrot pudding flavored with coconut that was almost too sweet to eat, but too good not to finish. I was surprised that it did not have raisins or other dried fruit.

The first entree he gave me was called Cauliflower Manchurian, a dish that came to India in the 1960s when Chinese immigrants moved to the country. Those immigrants began cooking the dish and it quickly became highly popular, even as Indian cooks began adding their own spices and making it their own. The end result was a dish had a taste in between kung po cauliflower and aloo gobi (an Indian dish with cauliflower in a yellow curry.) The dish is a little sweet, a little hot, a little salty, and has flavors more reminiscent of China due to the use of soy sauce.

I was blown away. They gave me five other dishes and they were good, but nothing came even close to Cauliflower Manchurian. I wanted more. I had to stop myself from licking the plate. In the end, I was given a score card. Nothing got below a 7 on a scale from 1 to 10, though nothing came close to the cauliflower’s high score of 21. At the end of the night, I thanked Chandra and left his restaurant, but I was already hungry for more of that fantastic Cauliflower Manchurian.

That was in May. For some reason, I thought that Masalas was a few weeks, maybe a month away from opening for business. One month passed. Then another and then another. Every now and then I would see Chandra at Whole Foods and I would ask when Masalas was going to be open. The need for more Cauliflower Manchurian was turning from a desire into an obsession and I needed to know. I was told “Soon.”

For four months I waited until again, out of sheer happenstance, I was going to get groceries when the signage at Masalas changed. This time it read: “Now Open.”

I canceled my dinner plans, walked in and ordered the buffet. I had a fantastic meal. I tried everything, but when I went back for seconds, my plate contained only one dish. It was made with cauliflower.

I left the restaurant stuffed, but I still have not gotten enough Cauliflower Manchurian.

If you want to try Cauliflower Manchurian for yourself, Chandra was nice enough to share his recipe.

For the cauliflower dumplings:

• 10 tablespoons of cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon of sriracha or sambal olek
• 1 teaspoon of MSG (optional)
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• ½ tablespoon of pepper
• ½ tablespoon of sugar
• The juice of 1 lime
• 1 head of cauliflower, cut into cubes

For the sauce:

• 1 small onion per head of cauliflower, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of ginger, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of spring onions, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• The juice of 1 lime
• 1 teaspoon of MSG (optional)
• 1 tablespoon of ketchup

First, make the dumplings by combining all the ingredients except for the cauliflower in a mixing bowl and add water until it forms a smooth, pancake-like batter. Taste the batter at this stage, it should taste delicious. If not, adjust the seasons accordingly.

Add the cauliflower and toss to evenly coat and let sit for 15 minutes.

Deep fry the cauliflower in a neutral oil and drain.

To make the sauce, cook the onions, ginger, garlic, and spring onions in the olive oil until the onions are soft. Add the cauliflower dumplings and the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

As an alternative, you can leave out the dumplings and add 1 tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons of water and thicken the sauce first. Then add the cauliflower and cook long enough for the dumplings to get coated and warm.