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Chinese recipes from China and that from India has a stark difference. Chinese dishes sold in Chinese restaurants in India are more Indian than Chinese, a blazing example of that is probably the gobi manchurian. A friend of mine who recently shifted from Bangalore to Shanghai went to this Chinese restaurant in Sanghai and even before he could take a look at the menu, he asked for the gobi manchurian, ok he said cauliflower manchurian. The waiter was kind of amazed and starttled. The closest thing he has heard to gobi manchurian is Manchurian people who come from Northern China, Manchuri. Even wikipedia expalains manchurian as a recipe from Indian cuisine and not Chinese..lol.
While in school, fried rice and chili chicken has been one of my favorite going-out-with-friends food. I love the spicy tangy taste of chili chicken. As I grew, the gravy from the chilli chicken vanished and the fried rice was replaced by alcohol. The dried chilli chicken is a wonderful side to go with any kind of alcohol – beer, vodka, whisky – you name it.
Now, with the growing number of vegetarian friends in my circle, I had to but replace the chicken from chili chicken with paneer. Paneer though loosely translated in English as cottage cheese, is not exactly cottage cheese. The cottage cheese you get in the supermarkets in US is more gooey and comes lumps. While the paneer is harder and more plain in texture. So, the only way to get paneer in US is to go to an Indian store. The non-melting farmer’s cheese or the German quark are a close relative to the Indian paneer.
Chili Paneer
- 200gms paneer
- ½ of a bell pepper, cut to inch size squares
- 1 medium onion, cut to inch size squares
- 3- 4 green pepper, coarsely chopped
- 3 tablespoons corn flour
- ¼ cup canola oil
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons dark soya sauce
- 2 tablespoon tomato sauce
- Cut the paneer in inch size square.
- Beat the egg in a large bowl, add 2 tablespoon of cornflour, 1 tablespoon soya sauce and marinate the paneer in this marinade for at least ½ hour, maximum to 2 hours
- Heat the oil in a wok, an fry the paneer till the outside is brown in color. Take out and place on a kitchen towel to drain out the excess oil.
- Discard most of the oil from the wok, keeping just a little to fry the vegetables. Add the onions to the oil, fry till they turn translucent
- Add the bell pepper and fry for 2-3 minutes, or till they start to wilt
- Pour in the soya sauce, vinegar and tomato sauce and stir till the gravy thickens. Pour in a little water and cook till the bell peppers are almost done.
- Now, add the fried paneer and cook for a minute.
- Garnish with the chopped chilies.
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Very nicely done.
I Love to eat this..!! Chilli Paneer one of my favourite in Veg. Thanks for sharin g this.
Love the twist to this recipe. Paneer cooked in a chili base gooey gravy is simply tempting. Its a fabulous dish which I will enjoy with rice.