Vegetable Chowmein

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Some years back,in large metros around India, restaurants introduced what was called "Chinese" dishes in their menu.Apparently a lot of people were curious to taste this new type of food and this cuisine caught on in a big way.I was probably one of the few holdouts who had not tasted this cuisine for quite some time even though it seemed to be gaining a fair amount of popularity.What can I say,apparently my spirit of adventure with regard to food had not completely developed at that point.

Anyway this "Chinese" cuisine was so popular that every restaurant added this type of food to their menu cards,new stalls mushroomed all across the cities doing brisk business churning out stuff with names like Cauliflower Manchurian,Vegetable Manchurian,American chopsuey to name a few and the people around were literally eating it up.This Chinese food is vastly different from the Chinese food you find here,since it has been Indianized,hence the term "Indo-Chinese" which is used to refer to this cuisine nowadays.

Eventually of course I not only tried and liked this type of cuisine and still like it as a matter of fact, I also make some of these dishes at home regularly.This variation of chowmein I make using wheat spaghetti or wheat angel hair pasta. I guess the use of Italian spaghetti in an Indo chinese dish definitely qualifies this dish to be categorized as fusion cooking in its truest sense :)

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and Method to make the Vegetable Chowmein

8 oz of wheat spaghetti / wheat angel hair pasta
4 medium carrots (cut into 3 pieces horizontally and then sliced lengthwise)
4 cups of cabbage (cut long, loosely packed cups)
1 onion sliced lengthwise
3 tbsp sesame oil (or corn oil)
1 tsp minced ginger
3 tbsp chili garlic sauce (or according to taste) (I used Maggie sauce)
2 tbsp Soy sauce
4 tbsp Regular Tomato Ketchup
Salt to taste

Cook the spaghetti in a large pot with boiling salted water.Drain,rinse with cold water and drain again and keep aside.

Heat the sesame oil and add the onions to this and saute for a minute or two on high heat.Add the minced ginger and saute for a few seconds.

Add the carrots and saute for a few minutes on medium to high heat.Do not let the carrots become too soft.

Add the cabbage and saute for a few minutes on medium to high heat.When all the veggies are softer but still crisp ( a little tender crisp) add the chili garlic sauce,the soy sauce and the ketchup.Mix well.

Add the cooked spaghetti,salt to taste and mix well.Saute this for another minute or so.

Serve hot.Serves about 3-4

Notes: This can be made using Chinese Egg noodles or any other type of Chinese noodles.In case you use a different type of noodle,first prepare the noodles as per instructions on the packet and drain and keep aside and then proceed with the rest of the recipe.

Another point to note is that when using different type of noodles you may need to decrease the amount of chili garlic sauce.

You can use vegetables such as snow peas,bell peppers in place of or in addition to the vegetables given in this recipe.

The picture I have used here is when I made this chowmein with angel hair pasta and other vegetables such as green bell pepper, mushrooms, onions and carrots.