Mushroom Manchurian

Ingredients

250g Mushrooms (I used chestnut mushrooms)
Oil for deep frying
Ingredients for the batter

150g of plain flour
6 tbsp. corn flour
3 cloves garlic, 5g knob of ginger and 1 large red chilli minced together
Salt to taste
1 tsp. of Chinese 5 spice powder
200ml water
Ingredients for the sauce

3 tbsp. soy sauce
4 tbsp. tomato ketchup (Groan. I know, but it's necessary in this recipe)
1 tbsp. caster sugar
1 ½ tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 large red pepper, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 green chillies, finely chopped
4-5 spring onions, chopped horizontally
1 tsp. Chinese 5-spice
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
Method

1. Heat some oil, in preparation of letting the mushrooms sizzle and swim in it- and that too dressed.
2. Wash and chop the mushrooms into bite sized chunks and set aside.
3. To make the batter, combine the ingredients and whisk together, we don't want any lumps but it should be pretty thick.
4. Coat the mushrooms with the batter and drop them, individually into the oil. Don't overcrowd the pan or else they'll stick together-that's not nice. When the mushrooms have achieved a golden brown colour, drain them on to kitchen paper to remove the excess oil.
5. To make the sauce, heat 2 tbsp. oil in a pan and then add the garlic, spring onions, green chillies and red pepper and stir-fry until the peppers have softened a little; this should take 3-4 minutes. Then add the soy sauce, ketchup, 5-spice, vinegar, sugar and stir through and bring to a gentle simmer, before mixing in thoroughly the mushrooms. Serve immediately to ensure that the mushrooms stay nice and crispy.