Sesame Honey Chili Potato

Sometime back when I was still with the hospitality industry a hugely popular Chinese Restaurant in the capital decided to change the decor, get in new chefs from China and get traditional Chinese cuisine into the menu. Thankfully for them, they still retained some Chinese dishes you find in India in their menu.The desi Chinese dishes remained the best sellers.

Chinese cuisine is a very popular cuisine in India. In my household, we cook Chinese atleast once every 2 weeks and eat out Chinese food every 2 weeks. But the fare we love to eat is so different from authentic Chinese cuisine that it is wrong to term it as one. It should be ideally termed Sino-Indian cuisine. Even this has so many sub varieties, ranging from Punju Chinese like the manchurian, to udipi versions of sweet & sour idli and sichuan dosa. There are even restaurants serving jain versions of Chinese food. A few years back one could even get themselves a pizza with a sichuan chicken or paneer topping. A lot of it has got to do with the Indian love for things fried, crispy and spicy. Nevertheless it sells, it's very popular with the masses and classes and I love it.
I love to eat American Chopsuey and drums of heaven and need to satiate my cravings every third day. My spouse has a similar thing for chili potatoes. Between us we can tell you the best places to have Sino-Indian food in various cities in India. Talking about them, I think I have had the best drums of heaven in Hyderabad in a place called Walden Court. It's a small clubhouse for residents of a society but serves the best drums of heaven. If you can, you must get your way in and sample those. Closer home, the newly opened Mandarin Trail (Noida) has decent fare and great chili potatoes. They are a drier, crispier version, with a great after taste of chili. If you want a more saucy chili potatoes then head 50 kms. out of Noida to Dana Choga in Gurgaon. My better half and I have been going there for the last 13 years to have their chili potatoes and chopsuey, though the chopsuey has gone down in terms of taste, the chili potatoes still rule. The China Club in Gurgaon is another favorite of ours though we haven't gone there for sometime now.For the time being I'll leave you all to try the chili potatoes recipe below. The chopsuey and drums of heaven can wait for another post.

Sesame Honey Chili Potatoes

Ingredients:

Potatoes, cut into thick finger shaped pieces (french fries shape) - 250 gm
Red Chili Flakes - 1 Tsp
Garlic, crushed - 2 Tsp
Salt - 2Tsp
Sesame Oil - 2 Tsp

For Marinade:
Red Chili Sauce - 2 Tsp
Honey - 3 Tsp
Soy Sauce - 1.5 Tblsp.
Vinegar - 1.5 Tblsp.
Tomato Sauce - 2 Tblsp.

For Garnish:
Spring Onions, scallions, chopped- 2 Tsp
Sesame seeds, dry roasted - 2Tsp

Method:
1. Deep fry the potatoes on a medium flame till they are golden brown.
2. Mix all the ingredients for the marinade and add the fried potato sticks to the marinade. Keep for10 minutes.
3. Heat oil in a wok. Add in the crushed garlic and chili flakes. Stir fry for 30 seconds.
4. Add the potatoes along with the marinade and cook on a high flame.
5. Toss the potatoes and cook well on high flame for 5 minutes or till potatoes are almost dry.
6. Arrange on a serving platter and sprinkle chopped scallion and sesame seeds on top.

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Hot Garlic Chicken

Chinese food has been an evergreen favorite in the household. After having eaten chinese food across the world, must say, that the chinese food made indian style has its own charm and I'm a self professed die hard fan of it. My wife and my managers will actually swear by the number of times I have gone looking for American Chopsuey, even for breakfast :)

DimSums obviously are a second favorite for me and the number one favorite for my better half. The quality of chinese restaurants are judged by how good their Dim Sum's are.
This particular dish was made one sleepy weekend when I felt the craving for chinese food.

Hot Garlic Chicken

Ingredients-

1/2 pound Chicken, cut into pieces
Garlic, chopped - 1 Tbslp
Red Chilli Powder - 2 Tsp
Tomato Sauce - 2 Tblsp
Salt, to taste
Sugar - 1 Tsp
Chicken Stock - 1/2 Cup
Cornflour - 1 Tblsp
Oil - 4 Tblsp
Vinegar - 1 Tsp
Bell Pepper, cut into small pieces - 1
Red Chillies- 2
finely chopped Onion - 1/2
Finely chopped Spring Onion (Scallions) - 3

Marinade -
1 Egg
Salt - 3/4 Tsp
Cornflour - 1 Tblsp
Oil - 1 Tblsp

Method:

1. Marinade the chicken with all the ingredients (for marinade), and keep aside for 30 min.
2. Heat 4 Tbsp oil in a wok and stir fry the chicken for 10 min in medium heat. Drain and keep aside.
3. In the same oil add garlic, red chillies and red chilli powder. Fry for 3 minutes and add tomato sauce.
4. Add bell pepper, onion and spring onion. Stir fry for 3 minutes in high heat. Add fried chicken. Stir-fry and add salt, sugar and chicken stock.
5. Mix the cornflour in 1/4 cup water and add to chicken slowly, stirring continuously to thicken the sauce. Finish with the vinegar.
6. Serve with fried rice or noodles.

Addendum : I have had a few requests asking for recipes for Momos. Here's the one I posted quite some time back. It has an okay video shot with a mobile at my friends place whose wife makes amazing momo's.

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