Best of Pan-Asian Bowl & a Homage to oriental flavours

 
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Story and recipe by Yash @yvagarwal1:

Indo-Chinese food is huge in India, especially up here in Delhi. The dish is a homage to my love for the cuisine and oriental flavours. cooked it for my family of 8. Quantity would have been good enough for 12 but ended up being just enough for all.

Read the entire recipe once before making. General Idea is to keep adjusting for salt and taste in each element and use fresh produce as much as possible and reduce waste. I cook randomly for fun, getting inspired by restaurant dishes and love Masterchef Australia. All one needs is to know and understand elements and then one can cook n add/build on them intuitively.

1) Butter Garlic Noodles, 2) Schezwan Rice, 3) Smoked Veggies, 4) Chilly Soy Broth and 5) Garnish

1) Butter Garlic Noodles

  • Boil noodles with salt n olive oil.

  • In a pan, heat a decent amount of butter along with 2 spoons of olive oil.

  • add salt, pepper, minced garlic, chilly flakes to the oil.

  • let garlic golden-brown up and add the noodles and mix. Adjust quantity as per taste.

Taste check - Should taste peppery and noodles should not feel dry. Add butter/oil a little if dry.


Note:

- Move ahead while noodles are being boiled.

- Make sure noodles are not over boiled since they will soften a bit further when served with broth.

- There is nothing as too much garlic for me


2) Schezwan Rice

  • Boil rice

  • in a pan heat some oil

  • add some salt and one tomato paste puree and schezwan sauce

  • mix well and add a little water

  • let it sizzle and add the rice and mix.

Taste check - Should get some decent spicy schezwan sauce hit.


Note:

- Move ahead while rice is boiling.

- In case you don’t have schezwan sauce, can make it the same way as the noodles or in some other Asian sauce.

- Can reverse as well, make rice butter pepper and noodles schezwan. Fusion-it-up your way!


3) Smoked Veggies

  • cut onions, carrot, baby corn and cabbage-long and thin

  • bell peppers small squares (don’t throw the remaining part), mushroom in 2 or 4 chunks based on size, broccoli flower (don’t throw stem)

  • heat pan on low flame and add all veggies. No oil is needed as of now.

  • Let it roast a little and add salt n pepper n mix well.

  • smoke the vegetables using a smoking gun. Or heat a piece of charcoal until red. place charcoal in a small bowl and place the bowl in the pan in the middle.

  • Keep the lid ready. Add a tablespoon of ghee and cover instantly to trap the smoke.

  • remove the pan from heat and let it smoke for at least 15 min.

  • Put heat back on, add some olive oil and mix well and allow vegetables to cook a bit more.

Taste check - Veggies should taste nice and crunchy and smoky. Adjust salt for the right balance here.

Note:

- Move ahead while veggies are being smoked.

- Feel free to add any other vegetables that you enjoy.

- The vegetable remains and broccoli stem will be used in the broth in the next step.

4) Chilly Soy Broth

Going about this step quickly is fun. The game is to find a vegetable/remain you want to use and throw it in the pan.

  • Heat a large pan on high flame.

  • Without any oil, keep finding vegetables you want to use, throw them in and toss them.

  • start with the capsicum n broccoli and any other remains.

  • add potato, onion and tomato, chopped in 4 pieces and throw them in.

  • add some pieces of big carrot pieces, beans and/or any other vegetable you feel like and let the vegetable roast.

  • add garlic cloves, ginger and some chillies (extra chillies depending on spice tolerance) allow the mix to release their natural umami.

  • add some salt and a couple of spoons of oil and soy sauce and one spoon of honey to the mix and let the pot caramelize.

  • Fill the pot with water enough to submerge the vegetables and bring to boil. Don’t put too much else broth will lose flavour.

  • Squeeze out a couple of lemons and add juice to the broth. Add soy sauce and very little vinegar.

  • Post boiling, remove the vegetables and strain out the liquid into a pot and adjust for taste.

Taste check - Broth should be a nice transient brownish tone.Should feel a deep n complex taste. You should also be to taste the soy and a bit of tang from the lemons.

Note:

- While broth is boiling you can move back up and cook the noodles and rice if the prep is complete.

- Feel free to add any other vegetables that you enjoy.

- If you have added extra water, let the water boil some more. Don’t thicken by adding some flour or anything else.

- the remaining vegetables can be mashed or made into some form of stew or composted.

5) Garnish

  • Heat some oil in a frying pan.

  • Chop some garlic but don’t mince and fry.

  • Chop Some peanuts and fry.

  • Chop some spring onion and coriander.

  • Squeeze some fresh lemon juice.

  • add chilly flakes.

Note:

- All these would be put in individual bowls and served separately along with the dish.

- Feel free to fry some cashew nuts and onions and hand in some oregano.

FINAL SERVING BOWL

  • Take a bowl. The transparent glass if possible to see the layers.

  • Add a serving of butter pepper noodles and a serving of schezwan rice at the bottom, next to each other.

  • Add smoked vegetables on top of the noodles n rice.

  • Add broth on the side till half the height of noodles/rice. Do not submerge completely.

  • Lightly garnish all the additional condiments.

Note:

- Prepare individual bowls so everyone can have a balanced plate.

- If the bowl is not wide enough, rice n noodles get on top of one another.

- allow eaters to add some garnish themselves to draw into the experience, hence garnishing lightly.


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