Paneer Capsicum Masala Chilly

It's such a joy to bring together different ingredients without having to follow any rules. I mean, why can Indian spices not join hands with Chinese sauces and give us the best of both worlds? Indo-Chinese cuisine - something I totally relish, has given us an insight into how dishes can be tweaked to suit the palates of the consumers. So when it comes to whipping out dishes in one's own kitchen and bringing together different cultures, the choices are innumerable. 

This recipe is my take on 'Paneer Chilly', a famous Indo-Chinese dish which I have made more 'Indian' by adding Indian spices. I have chosen not to fry the paneer, and to throw in a little more vigour into the dish, have added red bell peppers. I'm so in love with the deep red colour of these peppers, the subtle sweetness they offer and the beautiful contrast they provide with the paneer.

I like this dish to be very spicy so do adjust the spice level according to your taste. If the dish turns out too spicy, add some tomato ketchup or lemon juice.

Ingredients :

2 large onions

2 tsp ginger gralic paste

2 green chillies, finely chopped

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp garam masala powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 medium tomato

1 large red capsicum 

1 medium green capsicum

1 tsp soy sauce

1 to 2 tsp red chilli sauce (I used Ching's)

2 tsp vinegar

1 tbsp tomato ketchup

1 tbsp kasuri methi (optional)

400g paneer, chopped into cubes

Salt

Coriander leaves or / and spring onion greens for garnish

Method :

Heat oil. Sauté chopped onions till they turn brownish. Add ginger garlic paste and green chillies and sauté for a few minutes. To this add the powders and roast. Add diced tomato and bell peppers and cook covered for 4 to 5 minutes or till they are cooked (keep stirring every minute).

Now add the sauces and vinegar and mix well. Cook for a minute. Add paneer, salt to taste (remember, the sauces have some salt in them) and kasoori methi and mix gently so as not to break the paneer.

Garnish with coriander leaves.

You can have this as a side dish with Chapati and curd. Or if you are like me and enjoy things spicy, eat it as it is!

Sesame Honey Chilli Potatoes

When I came across this recipe on Shailu's Kitchen, I was reminded of the sweet and sour chicken from Hao Hao that I used to love as a kid (and still do!) This is a completely different dish but honey and chilli seemed like a deadly combination and the sweet and spicy sauce lured me into trying it out.

I had a lot of potatoes in the pantry so thought of using all of them.  You can easily scale down the recipe as per your need.

Ingredients :
10 to 12 medium potatoes [I used red potatoes]
8 garlic cloves
3 tsp chilli powder
2 tbsp tomato sauce
3 tbsp oil
Salt
Spring onions/ coriander leaves
Toasted sesame seeds*

Sauce
4 garlic cloves
4 tbsp tomato sauce
2 tbsp red chilli sauce [I used Ching's]
2 tsp vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp honey

Method:
Chop potatoes into wedges/ fingers. Peel and chop garlic.
In a large bowl, combine garlic, chilli powder, tomato sauce, oil and salt. Toss in the potato wedges and mix well. Adjust the salt.

You can either bake the potatoes or fry them. Shailu suggests adding cornflour instead of oil while frying the potatoes.

For baking, line a large baking tray with greased foil. Place the potatoes (avoid overlapping) and bake at 400ºF till the potatoes are cooked - about 30 to 35 minutes. Turn the potatoes once in between.

In a pan, heat 1 or 2 tbsp oil.  Add garlic and roast till it turns golden brown . Add the rest of the ingredients for the sauce (except honey) and bring to a light boil.

Add the baked / fried potatoes and honey and mix well. Cook for a couple of minutes until the potatoes are coated with the sauce.
Garnish with spring onion greens and toasted sesame seeds. (If you have regular sesame seeds, just dry roast them on low heat).

I added less honey because I wasn't sure if my husband would like the honey-chilli combo. But he did love this dish, so I will stick to this proportion. You could increase the honey if you prefer the dish a  little sweeter.

Gobi / Cauliflower Manchurian

Gobi manchurian is one of my most favorite vegetarian dishes. A big plate of gobi manchurian never fails to cheer me up. Street vendors usually add a generous helping of red food color to this dish which  greatly adds to it's visual appeal. In India, gobi manchurian is a Chinese dish. But you will not find it it in any Chinese restaurants in the U.S. You will, however find it in many Indian restaurants.

Making gobi manchurian at home can be a long process. So I usually save it for special occasions. This time I made this dish for a friend's b'day party. Here's how I did it:

Ingredients :
1 large cauliflower
1 cup maida (APF)
1/2 cup corn starch (corn flour)
1 tbsp rice flour
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp chilli powder
salt
2 medium onions
8 to 10 garlic cloves
1 " piece ginger
1/2 capsicum
2 to 3 green chillies
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
3 tbsp red chilli sauce *
2 tsp vineger
Corriander leaves
Spring onions
Oil
Ghee (optional)

*I used Ching's red chilli sauce. I find that the best.

Method
Wash and chop cauliflower into bite-sized florets. In a large bowl, mix maida, corn starch, rice flour, ginger garlic paste and red chilli powder. (Adding rice flour to the batter makes the fried cauliflower a little crispy. The sauce will mellow it down. You can avoid the rice flour if you don't want the crispiness.)
Add salt and just enough water to form a paste (dosa batter consistency).The paste should be thick enough to coat the cauliflower floret. Also, it should be slightly salty and spicy, since it should accomodate the bland cauliflower.

Dip the florets in the batter and deep fry in small batches Transfer them onto a paper towel.

Chop finely, onion, garlic, ginger, green chillies and capsicum.

Heat oil in a separate pan. Add onion and saute till it turns translucent. Add garlic, ginger and green chillies and roast some more. Add capsicum and fry well till it is cooked.To this add the soy sauce, tomato ketchup, vinegar and red chilli sauce (Keep tasting as you add. Since you are adding red chilli powder to the cauliflower and also the green chillies, put only as much red chilli sauce as you'd like).

Add 2 tsp ghee (I skipped this). Mix well and let the sauces cook together for a couple of minutes.

Add the fried cauliflower into the sauce and mix gently, till the florets are coated with sauce, taking care not to break the florets. [ I find that adding sauce to cauliflower instead of other way round is a better option. To do this, arrange the fried cauliflower in a large pan and pour the sauce all over it. Mix gently and heat for sometime.]

Garnish with corriander leaves and spring onions.

Dig a fork in it and enjoy!