Indo Chinese American Chopsey

               

               American Chopsey is a dish of crispy fried noodles mixed with a tangy sauce of  vegetables and meat, served topped with a fried egg.This is one of the Indo-Chinese dishes I have always been in love with right from my childhood. The fondness towards it remains the same even after all these years. I was so obsessed with it that whenever we visited Chinese restaurants, it was almost always ordered, inevitably. But Chinese dishes never taste that good here in the middle east, as it used to in India. Till date we have tried more than a dozen Chinese restaurants here, but none has rose to our expectations. And it is queit frustrating to think that we need to go back to India to have those delicious Indo Chinese dishes to our fill.

                  So nowadays, whenever I get a craving for some American chopsey, I run to my kitchen to toss up everything quickly and make a super fast Indo Chinese lunch in  no time. When I began to try recipes at home, it was one of the dishes I first began experimenting with; and it turned out to be quite easy to make like most of the Indo Chinese dishes. The kids too love it.

                   One thing to keep in mind while making Chopsey is to use egg noodles instead of plain spaghetti  unlike in Chowmein. Egg noodles give a nice crunchy texture when fried and imparts a rich taste. You can use instant noodles of any brands like Maggi, Indomie etc too. If you are planning to make American Chopsey for your guests; it's better to fry the noodles in advance and store in an air tight container. That way you can conveniently save a bit of time.

                    Actually, the gravy of American Chopsey is red in colour with the addition of tomato ketchup to it. But I prefer to have it without ketchup and hence the pale colour of my sauce. If you like you can go ahead and make the gravy red.

Here is the recipe..

Chilli Chicken fry

         Who says cultural collaboration degrades the heritage? I disagree.. Atleast in the case of food, it is not true. Thinking about Indo-Chinse recipes.. who can ever say it degraded the Chinese cuisine. Infact it is such a fascinating marriage of flavours that none can turn their heads away from the collaborated version if they have tasted one. How the addition of Indian spices or green pepper or the ever wonderful curry leaves could transform the actual version into a pure delight is interesting. Ample subject to research upon.. for a kitchen scientist!

         I have always been the greatest fan of Indo- Chinese and I do not remember when I started this crush.. Feel like it was there when I was quite small. So whenever I got these from restaurants, I have the history of devouring an awful lot without giving the slightest concern to my bewildered stomach and many a times had ended in throwing up. It must sure have had MSG!(Mono Sodium Glutamate/Ajinomoto) Other wise why should I throw up? So well..."It would be better to prepare that at home" I decided ..and started collecting all Indo-Chinese recipes which came in my way.. This particular recipe is from one of my friends who managed to lure it out from a cook who made it at their home on a special occasion. I skipped only two things from the original recipe and they are MSG(that again!) and yoghurt. (I have already explained why I do not add yoghurt or curd in my previous post, Prawn Biriyani). Still it tasted fantastic.

Coming to the recipe..

Things You Neeed:

1. Chicken (with bone or bone less) -   1  kg
2. Ginger  garlic paste                      -   1 tbsp
3. Turmeric powder                         -   1/4 tsp
4. Red chilli powder                         -   1 tsp
5. Coriander powder                       -   2 tsp
6. Garam masala powder                 -   1/2 tsp
7. Coriander leaves                          -    a bunch, cut into small pieces
8. Lemon juice                                 -    2 tbsp
9. Corn flour                                    -   2 tbsp
10. Maida/ All purpose flour               -  2 tbsp
11. Egg                                              -   1
12. Red food colour (optional)            -   a pinch
13. Salt to taste
14. Dark soy sauce                             - 2 tbsp
15. Tomato ketchup                            - 3 tbsp
16. Vegetable oil                             

Garnish:
Green bell pepper                         -   1 , sliced into medium sized pieces
Onion, sliced                                 -   1
Curry leaves                                  -  1 sprig

Method:

            Cut the chicken to small pieces, wash and drain. Mix it well with all the ingredients from 2 to 13 and keep for atleast one hour in the marination. Heat a wok and add oil to it .Put the chicken in it and fry until reddish brown.Take out from the oil and drain on a kitchen towel. Immediately transfer it to another vessel. Now fry the onions, green pepper and curry leaves in the same oil just for a couple of minutes and add it over the fried chicken. Add the sauces over it when the chicken is still hot and mix well. Serve hot with rice or chapattis or with noodles.