Topic: Chilly Paneer

[traveller]

Here is a recipe I came up by combining a few recipes I have seen.  This is an appetizer I have seen offered here in the UK at indian restaurants.  It is a kind of indian/chinese fusion recipe.  I just tried it for lunch today and it came out really good!!  Again, I didnt measure anything but can give a rough idea of what I did.

small paneer cubes
small piece of ginger, grated
1-2 cloves ginger, grated
1 onion, sliced into thin half rings
2 TBSP plain flour
1 TBSP cornflour
black pepper to taste
salt to taste
1 tsp white vinegar
2 tsp. soy sauce or more to taste
2 TBSP chili sauce (I use the Maggi brand one - it is more sweet and sour)
oil to deep fry

- first, make a batter with the flour and cornflour.  Make it pretty thin and add salt and pepper to taste.
- add paneer pieces to it - make sure they get coated a bit with the batter.
- deep fry the paneer cubes until lightly brown all over.  set aside to cool.
- heat 1-2 spoons oil in a pan and add onions.  Cook until soft and add garlic and ginger and cook for a minute.  Add soy sauce, chili sauce, vinegar and more black pepper.
- Cook until it is nice and bubbly - add few spoons and water and cook.  If needed, add some cornstarch in water to thicken it up.  Add the paneer cubes and mix and heat it through.

If you dont have chili sauce, I think you can take some chopped tomatoes (or tomato sauce/ketchup), red chilies, sugar and vinegar and cook it all down to get a sort of tangy chili sauce.  Should come out pretty close to it.  Also, you can add capsicum and carrot sliced very thin into match stick pieces with the onions.
I was surprised to see that even though the paneer did not have what seemed to be a thick coating of the batter, it still got a nice, chewy batter around it!!!  Just like in the restaurant!

[Mark J]

- add paneer pieces to it - make sure they get coated a bit with the batter.

And there was me thinking you couldnt get more unhealthy than deep fried paneer, battered deep fried paneer!? ;D

Looks gorgeous by way