Chinese Fried Rice

My husband and I recently got chinese fried rice and orange chicken at the mall and guess who loved it the most?? Yes! my 18mth old..those days are gone by when kids used to eat paruppu sadham (dal rice) and thayir sadham (yoghurt rice) everyday without any trouble..Now all that they like are pasta, noodles, fried rice..
So this is my version of chinese fried rice I regularly make..and recently my daughter's fav..

Servings: 4 

Ingredients:

Rice - 2 cups (rice cooker cup)
Water - 2 1/2 cups
Eggs - 4
Onion, diced - 1 medium
Mixed Vegetables - 2 cups
Shredded chicken - 1 cup
Ginger, grated - 1/2 Tbsp
Garlic, grated - 3 cloves
Olive Oil - 3-4 Tbsp
Sugar - 1pinch
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Ajinomoto - 1 pinch (optional)
Sauces:

Dark soy sauce - 1/2 Tbsp

Chili Soy - 1/2 Tbsp

Red Chili Sauce (like Sriracha) - 1/2 Tbsp 

Ketchup - 1/2 Tbsp

Method:

1. Cook rice in a rice cooker with 2 1/2 cups of water, 2 tsps of salt and 1/2 Tbsp of oil and once cooked, let it cool down.
2. Take a saute pan and scramble 4 eggs with salt and pepper. Remove from the pan and shred into tiny pieces and keep aside.
3. Take cooked chicken strips and shred into small pieces with your hand and sauté it in the same pan with a little olive oil, salt and pepper for 2 minutes. Remove from the pan and keep aside.
4. To the same pan, add some more oil, and add the onions, ginger and garlic and sauté until the raw smell goes away. 
5. Now, add all the veggies, sugar, salt and pepper and sauté in high flame until cooked through. The sugar keeps the veggies retain their color and cooking in high flame allows the veggies to get cooked quickly without wilting them.
6. Mix all the sauces from above to a paste. 
7. Once the veggies are done, add the chicken, scrambled eggs, rice and the sauces and mix together in low flame for 2-3 minutes. Adjust salt and pepper and remove from heat.

I used grilled chicken strips from Costco that I always have in my refrigerator for this. You can use chicken breast and just sauté it in the pan with salt, olive oil, pepper and shred it. If you like yours much spicier, you can increase the Sriracha to 1 or 1/2 Tbsps. 

Veggie Egg Noodles

Growing up, my brother used to experiment and make these awesome chinese style egg noodles similar to the ones that you get at restaurants as sunday breakfast or an evening snack. In India you would never had to to crave or add meat to your meal coz you get amazing vegetarian food at restaurants. So I decided to keep this veggie but with eggs..Please..I just said no meat..dint say no eggs :)

Ingredients:
Egg noodles - 1 pack
Red Onions - 1 large
Carrots - 2 nos
Bell pepper - 1 no
Cabbage, cut into strips -  1 handful
Paneer - 10-15 pieces
Spring Onions, cut small - 1/2 bunch (optional)
Ginger, grated - 1 tsp
Garlic, grated - 1 tsp
Eggs - 2
Soy sauce - 1 Tbsp
Worcestershire sauce -1 Tbsp
Chilli sauce - 2tsp (I used Sriracha)
Vinegar - 1 tsp
Red chilli flakes - 1 tsp
Ajinomoto - 1 pinch
Sugar - 1pinch
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Method:

1. Cut all the veggies lengthwise into 2 inch thin long strips. 
2. Cook noodles as per packaging directions
3. Scramble eggs in a pan and keep aside. 
4. If you don't have fried paneer, shallow fry the paneer in a pan/wok until slightly browned and chewy.
5. In the same pan, add onions and sauté until it turns pink. Add ginger and garlic and fry for a few mins. You can also just add ginger garlic paste if you don't have grated ginger and garlic.
6. Add all the veggies, salt and sugar and in high flame, sauté the veggies until cooked through. The sugar helps to keep the veggies retain their colors while getting cooked. 
7. Now add everything else and heat in medium flame for a few minutes. Chilli sauce, worcestershire sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, red chilli flakes, pepper, ajinomoto, noodles, scrambled eggs, spring onions and paneer and adjust salt, pepper and chilli sauces to taste, if needed.

Fish Manchurian

This recipe again, is a mixture of a few manchurian recipes I liked...
In India, I was never a big fan of fish because of the bones! But, I always liked to order fish at restaurants because they were boneless and yummy..very different from the ones made at home.
So, this is my attempt of a healthy fish manchurian.

Fish Marinade:
Tilapia/catfish - 2 lbs
All purpose flour - 3 Tbsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1 Tbsp
Cornflour - 2 Tbsp
Lemon juice - 2 Tbsp
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Egg whites - 2
Salt, to taste
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

For Gravy:

Bell peppers,chopped - 1 no
Onion, diced - 1 no
Green chili, long slices - 3 nos
Spring/green onions, chopped - ¼ cup
Garlic, minced - 2 tsp
Ginger, minced - 2 tsp
Green chili sauce - 1 Tbsp
Soy sauce,dark - 3 Tbsp
Sugar - ¼ tsp
Red chili sauce - 1 tbsp
Oil - 1tbsp
Salt, to taste - ¼ tsp
Water - 2 cups
Corn flour - 2 Tbsp

Method:

1. Marinate the fish with all the contents from the above marinade list and keep aside for 30 mins.
2. Preheat the oven for 350 degrees and bake the fish for 20 minutes until it browns up a little. You can pan fry or deep fry the fish if you like.
3. In a skillet or pan, add oil, onions, bell peppers, green chillies, ginger, garlic, salt and sugar and heat in high flame.
4. Once cooked, add the soy sauce, green and red chilli sauces.
5. Mix the corn flour with water to make a solution. Pour this over the veggies.
6. Simmer and let the gravy thicken for a few mins.
7. Add fish to the gravy and heat up in low flame for 2-3 mins.

This will be great with chapatis, parathas or rice.