Vegetables in Hot Garlic Sauce

The Chinese meal I was planning for dinner needed a nice gravy to go with the ginger rice and the sesame noodles. We like lots of gravy with our noodles and the spicier the better.

So I adapted a recipe from Sanjeev Kapoor's "Best of Chinese Cooking" - Hot Garlic Babycorn.

I added lots more vegetables and altered the cooking method too. The babycorn is coated with cornflour and deep fried in the original recipe.

Vegetables in Hot Garlic Sauce

Ingredients:

Babycorn - 10 sliced into 2 " pieces

Green Peppers - 2 cut into half inch squares

Mushroom - 7-8 washed thoroughly and sliced

Red chillies - 2-3

Spring onion - 2 finely sliced

Onion - 1 medium cut into quarters and layers separated

Garlic - 10-12 cloves finely chopped

Red chilli tomato paste - 2 tbsp

Soak 2 dried red chillies in 1/4 cup warm water for half an hour, blend to a paste with 1 tomato

Vinegar - 1 tbsp

Hoisin sauce - 2 tbsp

Cornflour - 2 tsbp blended with 1 cup water

Salt to taste

Vegetable stock - 1 cup

Sesame oil (Til oil) - 1 tbsp

Red chilli flakes - 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Heat sesame oil in a wok, break red chillies and add to it, add chopped garlic and fry 1 minute.

2. Add spring onion, onion,babycorn, mushrooms, green peppers and fry on high for 2-3 minutes stirring continuously.

3. Add red chilli tomato paste,vinegar, hoisin sauce, salt and vegetable stock and cook on high for 1 minute.

4. Stir in blended cornflour and cook till it starts to thicken. Approx 2-3 minutes.

5. Sprinkle red chilli flakes and serve hot.