Would you mind if I didn’t write a story today and plunged straight into the recipe? You won’t, I know. I’ve been posting so much of late that I really don’t have anything new to tell you. My life is so highly un-sensational, I swear! The only sensational bits are when I cook and eat, and you get to know about all of that by default. So yeah.
Okay, one thing. I’m really, really lousy at deep frying. I just can’t bring myself to put as much oil in the pan as it actually needs. I know how much oil needs to be poured, but I can’t, I just can’t. The result obviously is that my end-product is not crispy enough. To evade that problem I shallow fried these baby corns. And these turned out to be marvellous. But I would still advise you to go for deep frying. By all means. Trust me, the crispy, crunchy bite with the perfect punch of the onions, garlic and bell peppers that you’ll get will make you forget about your waistline for the time being. Just do it and see. You’ll thank me for it!
Serves: 3
Ingredients:
Baby corn: 250 gm
Onion, finely chopped: 1
Capsicum, thinly sliced: 1
Green/Spring onion, chopped: 1/2 cup
Garlic, finely chopped: 1 tbsp
Green chillies, slit: 2
White wine vinegar: 1 tbsp
Soy sauce: 1 1/2 tsp
Pad Thai sauce (optional): 3-4 tbsp
Corn flour: 1/2 tbsp (optional)
Salt, to taste
Oil: 1 tbsp + for shallow frying
For batter:
Flour: 3 tbsp
Corn flour: 2 tbsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp (I used garlic salt)
Pepper: 1/2 tsp
Red chilli flakes: 1/2 tsp
Water: as required
Method:
1. Make a thick-ish batter by mixing the given ingredients. Cut the baby corns into finger-sized pieces, wash them and pat them dry and roll them in the batter.
2. Heat oil in a deep-bottomed pan and shallow fry the baby corns batch by batch. Don’t put too many baby corn at the same time, else they’ll get stuck to the bottom of the pan. It took me three batches. Keep adding more oil if you feel necessary.
3. Once all the baby corns are shallow fried, drain them on a kitchen towel/paper napkin and set aside.
4. Again heat oil in the same pan and add the chopped onions. Saute on high heat for a couple of minutes or till translucent. Add the chopped garlic and continue to saute very fast. After another minute or so add the sliced capsicums and green chillies. Stir constantly on high heat till the capsicums lose their firm texture and blend with the onions, say around 5-8 minutes.
5. Now add the shallow fried baby corns and continue to stir. Add vinegar, soy sauce, Pad Thai sauce (if using) an adjust salt and continue cooking on high heat.
6. (Optional) In a bowl, mix 1/2 tbsp cornflour with a little water and add to the pan. This will generate a little bit of thick gravy, in case you want.
7. As soon as you’re satisfied with the texture of your baby corns and consistency of your gravy, turn off the gas.
8. Serve it as a starter/finger food in parties. For a comfort meal, pile the baby corn on some garlic bread and munch on the crispy goodness, just as I did!
