My Cook Book

Prep time
30 mins

Cook time
30 mins

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients
for frying the paneer:

1.     200 gms paneer/cottage cheese
2.     ½ tsp black pepper powder or crushed pepper
3.     2 tbsp corn flour/corn starch
4.     salt as required

for the sauce

1.     1 tbsp soya sauce
2.     ½ tbsp chopped celery or 2 tsp dry celery
3.     2 crushed schezuan pepper
4.     ¼ cup chopped spring onions/scallions (reserve some greens for garnishing)
5.     ½ tbsp chopped ginger-garlic
6.     4-5 green chilies
7.     ¼ cup sliced capsicum
8.     ½ tsp vinegar
9.     ¾ to 1 cup veg stock or water
10.     ½ tsp black pepper powder or crushed black pepper
11.     2 tbsp sesame oil
12.     1 tbsp corn flour dissolved in 2 tbsp water – for the corn flour paste
13.     salt and sugar as required

Instructions
frying the paneer:

1.     mix the paneer with black pepper powder, salt and corn flour.
2.     shallow or deep fry till done.
3.     don’t overfry as the paneer might become hard.
4.     since we coat cornflour you won’t be seeing the paneer as browned.
5.     so don’t keep on frying to make it golden brown. the paneer will become hard.

preparing the sauce:

1.     heat sesame oil.
2.     now add the spring onions/scallions and stir fry till they become transparent.
3.     add the ginger-garlic and stir fry till the raw smell disappears.
4.     add the capsicum and green chilies and stir fry till the capsicum is half cooked.
5.     add black pepper & crushed schezuan pepper.
6.     pour the veg stock or water.
7.     add celery and stir.
8.     add soy sauce, sugar, black pepper, red chilli powder and salt.
9.     simmer.
10.     add cornflour paste.
11.     stir well and let the sauce thicken.
12.     add the fried paneer cubes and simmer them in the sauce for 1-2 minutes.
13.     garnish with spring onion greens and serve hot with veg fried rice.

Notes
to make the sauce more thick, add some more cornflour paste.
if the sauce has become too thick, then add some veg stock or water to thin it down.

I made this chilli paneer for hubby as i don’t want to deprive him of eating his favorite paneer. he loves paneer dishes. chilli paneer is also hubb’s fav dish.

here is my version of making this famous indo chinese recipe at home. this is a not a dry recipe of chilli paneer but the gravy version. dry chilli paneer recipe will be posted in some time.

i used home made paneer to make the spicy chilli paneer. you can also use good quality store brought paneer.

i generally don’t add msg – mono sodium gluatamate or chinese salt to any of the indo chinese recipes i make at home. so the taste will be not restaurant style or like the chinese food we get at the chinese food stalls in india. nevertheless they are healthier and nutritious.

Presenting a step by step recipe for making chilli paneer with recipe details mentioned below:

1: in a bowl take the cornflour and salt. toss the paneer pieces in this mixture well so that the cornflour coats the paneer cubes well.
2: shallow fry or pan fry the paneer cubes. the corn flour coating gives a nice white color to the paneer.
3: drain on kitchen paper tissues.
4: heat sesame oil and stir fry the spring onions till transparent.
5: add the chopped ginger, garlic. stir fry till the raw aroma of these disappear.
6: now add the capsicum and green chilies.
7: stir fry these.
8: stir fry till the capsicum is almost half cooked and add black pepper & crushed schezuan pepper. if you don’t have schezuan pepper, then just don’t add
9: add veg stock or water along with some fresh or dry celery. i have added dry celery (sun dried at home)
10: add soy sauce, salt, sugar and simmer.
11:  add corn starch paste to thicken the gravy.
12: i also felt that i needed to add some red chilli powder as well. so here goes the red chilli powder.
13: simmer till the corn starch gets cooked and the gravy is thickened. add vinegar & the fried paneer cubes.
14: lastly simmer for 1-2 minutes…
16: serve the chilli paneer garnished with scallion greens with fried rice or naan. i served the chilli paneer with veg fried rice.