We have been trying different cuisines these days. Our latest favorite being Mongolean Grill – BD’s and Genghis Khan . Those who have not been to this restaurant – they have this big collection of vegetables, meat, sauces, dry powders. You can build your own bowl, add whatever vegetables, meat, sauce, spices you want to add and take it to a big frying pan. The chefs empty the entire content on this big pan and use two big iron rod kind of things to flip the content, something like shown in this ad . The final product is a bowl of perfectly fried vegetable/meat mix. Since we build up the whole dish, we can change it according to our taste. Somehow the frying method takes these dishes to a whole new level. I love to watch those chefs do the frying so artistically. When my parents were here, we had taken them to many different restaurants and their favorite was Mongolean.
Though they have all kinds of veggies and meats, the way I build up mine is like this – I add the veggies that I recognize, then goes few shrimps, chicken pieces, few sauces – basically those I can recognize, then I add a generous amount of curry powder, chili powder, salt, garlic powder. Usually one bowl is quite big and very filling. Once the chefs fry it, I add a generous amount of fried sesame on top. Ohh..Yumm…
Now that we love it so much, I wanted to make at least a mock up stir fry at home. Usually I throw in whatever I have in hand. But I usually like to keep it mild. Since I don’t have the curry powder they use, I add a Madras curry powder(I have a huge pack of this and have no idea how to finish this off). I don’t like g aram masala , coriander-cumin in this because they make this dish totally Indian. Both in BD’s and Genghis Khan, a kind of egg noodles is included, which also gets fried with other stuff, if we choose to add it to our bowl. When I am making this at home, I use thin rice noodles. I tried to use Maggi once and it was a huge flop :).
I keep changing the proportions to suit my taste. How you want to make it is your choice. You can totally replace any of the ingredients here. You can even make it a combination of vegetables and meats. I just prefer to make it all veg at home. Just fry everything at a time till all are well cooked. This has become a perfect lunch box item for me and my hubby for last 2 months – less work, healthy, tasty and very filling.
Ingredients: 2 cups of vegetables sliced – onions, capsicum, bean sprouts, zucchini, potatoes, cauliflower, celery, corn 1 cup of cooked and drained rice noodles (or egg noodles) 1/2 tea spn curry powder 1/2 tea spn chili powder 1/2 tea spn vinegar 1 tea spn soy sauce 1/2 tea spn sugar 1 tea spn worcestershire sauce 1/4 tea spn Tabasco sauce 1/2 tea spn fresh chopped ginger 1/2 tea spn fresh chopped garlic 1 tea spn roasted sesame seeds Oil Salt
Method: Heat oil in a big frying pan. Throw in all the veggies, ginger, garlic and fry for about 3-4 mins till the veggies become a bit soft. (I don’t add everything at one time because it requires constant stirring and high heat to cook evenly. So I wait till veggies are bit soft and then add the sauces/spices).
Add all sauces, spice powders, salt and mix for some more time till the veggies are 3/4th cooked. Do not let them cook completely. They should be crunchy.
Now add the noodles and keep mixing for another 3-4 mins.
While serving, top it with fried sesame seeds.
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 20mins
PS: Following is my entry to Jai and Bee’s Click photography event . This month’s theme is Noodles .
Last year when I posted the recipe for carrot cake with apple filling , I got a e-mail from Deepa Raj, in which she had sent me the recipe for cream cheese frosting. She also mentioned that this was her favorite frosting and it goes very well with pumpkin cake. Since I was very curious about this combination, I asked her if she can send me the recipe. Somehow one or the other thing kept me occupied for a long time and this recipe got lost in huge number of e-mails that I get. After few days I baked this and still, I am not sure why I never posted it here. But when I was searching for a recipe for Halloween cake , I remembered this. I have no idea if Halloween and pumpkin dishes have any connection, but since Halloween is almost synonymous with those spooky pumpkin faces , I thought there must be some connection.
The cake calls for pumpkin puree, but since I had butternut squash with me, I used 2 cups of grated butternut squash. I hate the cinnamon flavor in sweet dishes, it is something I am not able to stand. So I added the Indian-sweet-friendly spice, ie, cardamom. The frosting had a unique cream cheese flavor to it. It becomes more rich than any other frostings I have tried so far.
Thanks Deepa for this delicious recipe.
Pumpkin cake/bars: 2 cups all purpose flour 1 and 2/3rd cup sugar 1 cup vegetable oil 1 can (15oz) pumpkin puree or 2 cups pumpkin puree – I used same amount of grated butternut squash 4 eggs 2 tea spn baking powder 1 tea spn baking soda 2 tea spn cinnamon powder (optional) – I used 1 tea spn cardamom powder 1 tea spn salt – I used 1/2 tea spn
Method: Preheat the oven to 350F for about 10mins. Beat the eggs with sugar, oil and pumpkin puree till they are well mixed. Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. Add this to the egg mixture a little at a time till everything is well mixed. Pour the mixture in a greased baking dish and bake for about 25-30mins or till a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. When cake it cooled down to room temperature, take it out from the baking pan.
Cream cheese frosting: 6 oz cream cheese 6 tbl spn butter 3 cups confectioners sugar
Method: Beat cheese, butter, sugar till well mixed. Apply on the cake.
Preparation time : 50 mins
