Chilli Paneer

Today is Nuit De Destine in Ivory Coast and as a result, tomorrow is another Sunday for Mr. Husband!! Eid is quite near, and the super markets are now filled with ready made assembled gifts and iftar dishes. May be for the same reason, the supermarkets are super flooded with people now a days and many of the items there, are going out of stock. People are also seen on the street with their religious clothes, and in the ground floor of our building, a small group of people gather everyday to read Namaz, in the afternoon.

I was reading Nat Geo Traveller India, that day, where they described some of the popular iftar special street foods, in some prominent cities of India. These shops bloom only on Ramadan and then vanishes after Eid. I really wanted to try Arsalan’s Halim, and all those road side Kebabs in Delhi. The streets are literally a foodie’s heaven now, as you can be mesmerized among innumerable mouth-watering dishes at very low price.

In one shop, I saw some very beautiful carpets yesterday, which are used for reading Namaz. I was really tempted to buy, as they had really delicate needleworks in them, but really I don’t have any use of them, so I gave up.

As for my life, I have lots of books to read on now...but I am really falling short of movies. New movies are not available in Torrentz, and I have already watched pretty much all the good movies. After a lot of work, I found out that I still have not watched “Ju-on,the begin of the finale, 2014”. But alas, I finished watching that in the weekend, and now, I am almost empty handed.  My only hope is Avengers 2, which I think will be available for download soon.

Chilli Paneer is a very popular Indo Chinese dish and is very hit as a vegetarian dish. Since we are totally non-veg, Chilli Paneer almost never made it to the menu in the restaurants, but we savoured this recipe in Home. I mean really you can do a lot of things, with Paneer, rather than just cooking Matar Paneer. Chilli Paneer goes perfectly with pulao / roti / fried rice / naan. If you want to go purely vegetarian, then skip the garlic and onion and go heavy with the sauces. The sauces are the main ingredients, which brings flavour and taste to Chilli Paneer.

Chilli Paneer

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

200-250 gm paneer / Indian Cottage Cheese– cubed

1 medium onion – sliced

1 large capsicum – julienned

4-5 garlic cloves – minced

1 inch stick of ginger – minced

2-3 sticks of spring onion – chopped

6-8 green chillies – chopped (optional)

1 tbsp light soy sauce

½ tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp tomato sauce

½ - 1 tbsp green chilli sauce

1 and ½ tbsp corn flour / corn starch

Salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp oil

Note: I do not add msg, in any of my recipe.

Method:

Take ½ tbsp corn flour / corn starch and lightly pat on the paneer cubes with some salt.

 Heat oil in a wok / pan / kadai and shallow fry the paneer pieces until they start to brown on the edges. Do not over fry and take them out of the pan as soon as they start to colour.

In the same oil add the minced garlic and ginger and lightly sauté until the garlic starts to change colour. Do not let them brown completely; just wait till their raw flavour is gone.

Immediately add the sliced onions and julienned capsicum pieces. Sauté till they become translucent.

Next add the chopped green chillies and mix well.

Take a bowl and mix all the sauces in it, light soy, dark soy, tomato and green chilli sauces. Mix and pour the sauce into the onions and capsicums. Do not add salt right away, as all the sauces contain salt. Wait till the end, and then adjust the salt accordingly.

Take a cup of water, and mix in the corn flour / corn starch in it. Stir to mix in properly, so that no lumps remain there.

Pour this mixture into the pan.

You will see thick gravy forming, right away. Add another ½ cup of water and stir, to make the gravy. You can also use any vegetable stock of your choice. If you are non vegetarian, then you can use chicken stock as well.

Finally add in the fried paneer cubes, ground black pepper and chopped spring onions.

Simmer for 2 more minutes, and then put off the flame.
Taste and adjust the salt.

Serve hot with roti / chapatti / naan or your choice of fried rice.