The Manchurian Candidate!

Okay there were candidates, pros-cons with each and then the quick election. It was saucy and spicy. And it was accepted by the audience (my dear husband) well. For all those who are wondering that when did the classic movie Manchurian Candidate become saucy, I’ll explain- It didn’t.

I was just trying to come up with an interesting title for the post other than the typical -Soya Chunk Manchurian. This post is about Soya Manchurian and how soya got elected over the other more popular candidates like chicken, paneer (cheese cottage) and gobi (cauliflower) in my kitchen district.

Well, I had just reached home after a relaxing day at office and I wanted to cook something nice yet easy. Considering I had an exceptionally relaxing day at office, I didn’t really want to spoil the day by getting busy and sweaty in kitchen-why break the monotone. There was rice in the fridge which I knew I have to use coz I really don’t like stuff lying in the fridge for more than a day. Even this rice got into the fridge coz the husband announced after I put the rice on stove that he had a lunch appointment. Obviously then there’s no question of me coming home alone for lunch. So, in (fridge) went the rice and out came the mayonnaise and tomatoes. I quickly made a sandwich & packed it for lunch. That’s how I had a pot of rice leftover which I wanted to use the same day itself.

Rice was on the list for dinner’s menu tonight. And a quick peep into the fridge and I knew it was going to be Chinese fried rice. The spring onions had to be used. Chinese fried rice & Chicken Manchurian –lovely combination but there was no chicken at home. No time to sit and make paneer and no patience to cut the cauliflower heads, dip it in the corn flour mix and then fry that separately etc etc. Suddenly it struck me, how about Soya chunk Manchurian! Believe me, I thought I am the first one to get this ingenious idea until I googled just before writing this post. Anyways, I quickly took out the soya chunk and dipped it in boiling water and it puffed up in two minutes. Drained the soya and kept it aside. This is something my husband (let’s call him ‘S’, his name is real long to keep typing) taught me. Oh yes! I had never had soya chunks until I got married, the general curries made with soya chunk is still not in my list of things I like. So I used to make it really differently, generally substitute it for Chana in chana masala recipe only then I started liking it. Okay so going back to Soya Manchurian, this is what I did with it.

1. Soak soya chunk in boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain. Keep aside.
2. Heat oil in wok, add some finely chopped garlic, spring onion and ajinomoto & about 1tsp of ginger garlic paste.
3. Throw in a dash of soya sauce, tomato sauce (I used tom-chi), and Schezwan sauce. A little bit of vinegar and pinch (just  a pinch) of sugar.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. In the end add the drained soya chunks and mix it well with the sauce.

And tada- Soya chunk Manchurian is ready. This is how mine looked.

It definitely doesn’t taste as good as chicken or gobi but it’s a close contender for paneer. The soya chunks have no taste of their own so the more you let it fry in the sauce or simmer in the sauce the better. Even if my soya chunks won the election by default, this Manchurian Candidate delivered more than what it seemed to be promising when I started!