SWEET AND SOUR PANEER
An Indo-Chinese dish made with cottage cheese in a sweet and tangy sauce
Ingredients
- 250 g paneer/cottage cheese (cut into 1” cubes)
For paneer:
- Oil for deep frying
- 2 tbsp cornflour
- Salt
- 1 tsp Chilli powder
- 1 tsp Ajinomoto (flavour enhancer/monosodium glutamate)
- 1 tbsp light soya sauce (use ½ tbsp if using dark soya sauce)
- 2 tsp garlic paste or crushed garlic
- Marinate paneer with the above ingredients (except oil) and set aside for at least half an hour to allow the coating to wrap on paneer.
For the sauce:
- 3 tbsp cooking oil
- 1 bunch spring onions (chop and keep the white and greens separate)
- 2 tsp garlic cloves (finely chopped)
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
- Salt
- 1 tsp crushed chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
or
- ¼ cup tomato puree
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 1 tbsp Szechuan sauce
- 2 tbsp Thai sweet chilli sauce (optional)
- Recommended to use as it adds a very balanced sweet and tangy flavour.
- 2 tbsp cornflour
Instructions
- Heat oil in a deep fry pan. Deep fry the paneer pieces one by one in batches on a medium high flame. For the sauce, its best to use a wok. Make a paste of the cornflour in ½ cup water and keep aside. In a wok, start by heating oil and splatter sesames seeds. Saute chopped garlic and the whites of the spring onion. Flame needs to be medium to high at this point because we don’t want any water to be released from the onions. When they turn brown add the spices, vinegar and all the sauces in this section except cornflour. Quickly stir and add 1 cup water(approximately). Add the cornflour paste and quickly stir to thicken the sauce. Taste the sauce. You can adjust the sweetness and tanginess according to your taste. Add more or less of the sauces, as you prefer!At this point, you can also adjust the quantity of water and the quantity of cornflour according to your required consistency.
- Add paneer pieces and mix in the sauce. Not much cooking is required at this point. Just mix it in with the sauce properly, as it starts to boil, mix in the green part of the spring onions and switch off the flame.
- Serve with stir fired rice and Hakka Noodles.
Notes
- This recipe can be varied in different ways by just adjusting the consistency of the sauce. Can be served as a snack or a starter by making the sauce without the cornflour. Make the sauce as in the recipe but without cornflour paste and toss in the fried paneer pieces before serving
- With a thicker sauce in a semi dry consistency. Use half the quantity of water and cornflour paste for this consistency.