Indo – Chinese chilly paneer

A cold winter night in Minnesota needs something like hot and spicy, sweet and sour chilly paneer. Indo-chinese style! For someone looking for authentic chinese recipes, this is not it! This is Chinese (maybe?) with an Indian twist! It is a very popular and greatly devoured dish all over India.

 

Ingredients:

• 250 gms paneer (available at any Indian grocery store)
• 3 tsp Schezwan sauce (again available at any Indian grocery store)
• 2-3 tbsp cornflour
• 1 large onion
• 1 bell pepper/capsicum
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 3-4 spring onion stalks/scallions (for garnish)

This is the schezwan sauce I use. 

Method: 

1. Mix the cornflour in 3-4 tbsp water to make a paste. Set aside.

   

   Cornflour paste.

2. Cut the paneer into cubes. dip them in the cornflour paste to coat the cubes all around and fry them till golden brown.

   

   Fried paneer. 

3. Finely chop the garlic.
4. chop the onions and bell peppers into squares. (This is so much easier than finely chopping onions 🙂 and onions like this provide a good texture and density to this dish).
5. finely chop the spring onions/scallions and keep the white and green parts separate.
   

   Chopped veggies

   

   Chopped spring onions/scallions
6. Heat some oil in a wok/or a deep pan.
7. Once the oil is hot, add the garlic. saute for a about a minute or two, till you can smell the aroma or garlic and see that it is slightly browned and cooked.
8. Add the onions and saute till lightly brown. (Crisp onions/bell peppers really go well in this dish, so it would be better if the temperature of the flame is slightly high. Add the white part of the spring onions and cook for a couple of minutes.
9. After the onions have been sauteing for 2-3 minutes and have browned, add the bell peppers. Saute these for 3-4 minutes till crisp, lightly browned and cooked.
10. Once all these veggies are done sauteing, add in 3 tbsp of the schezwan sauce and give a quick mix/stir. Add two cups of water. You can add in more or less of the schezwan sauce based on the spice level you prefer.  add in just 1 -2 tsp (tea spoons) of the cornflour paste leftover to thicken the sauce/gravy. let this come to a boil. If you find it too thick, you can add a little more water. If you want thicker, boil/simmer it for a couple more minutes. Add salt to taste!
11. Garnish with spring onion/scallion greens.
12. Once the gravy has come to a boil, reduce the flame and add in the paneer cubes. Let them simmer for 4-5 minutes to absorb to soak up some of the yummy sauce.
13. Now, the best part, enjoy this pipping hot dish with some white rice or fried rice.

 

YUM!! 

 

Note: You can enjoy this dish dry as well, in the sense add very little water (just maybe 1/2 cup) with the sauce and let it boil, add the paneer cubes mix and simmer for a few minutes. This version will be dry paneer chilly without the gravy!

This dish is so quick and easy, and definitely one of my favorites to enjoy with some mildly spiced fried rice or even white rice.

Hope you try it and like it! Let me know how it turned out for you. And as always, suggestions, questions, comments are very welcome! 🙂