Spicy Paneer Nuggets for A.W.E.D - Chinese


I made this dish a few weeks back when the rains disrupted the net and I was not able to glue myself to the comp, and before I decided to try veganism. Its absolutely tasty and I am sure to try it again, this time with spiced tofu instead of paneer! I took this recipe from Suzy Li Ching’s ‘Vegetarian Chinese Cuisine’ and adapted it to suit the available ingredients and quanity required. This was served with the Szcheuan Fried Rice which will follow soon. I loved this as it is totally ‘OIL FREE’.

Ingredients:
A
Paneer prepared from 1 litre milk. – Cut into big chunks
Potatoes – cut into thick roundels and pricked with a fork.
Capsicums – Cut into rough chunks
Onions – Quatered and layers separated

Sauce:
B
Water – 1 + 1 cup
Ginger (Grated) – 1 tsp.
Ready spiced garlic powder – 1 tbsp.
Soya sauce – 1 tsp. + 1 tsp.
Red Chilli powder – ½ tsp.
Vinegar – 1 tsp.
Black pepper – ¼ tsp.
Corn flour 2 to 3 tbsp.
Salt to taste

Method:
Thin sauce: Mix 1 cup water with the rest of the ingredients using 1 tsp. soya sauce. Heat it and add the ingredients at A. Cook for a minute and drain ‘A’ ingredients. Set aside the residue.

Grill the drained 'A' till crunchy in a hot oven.

To thicken the sauce:
Dissolve cornflour in the remaining 1 cup water and add the extra 1 tsp. soya sauce. Mix with the residue and cook stirring all the while to prepare a smooth sauce. Toss the baked A ingredients and serve hot. Adjust spices to suit your taste.

Note: I found the recipe in the book too thin, and added the cornflour sauce towards the end. I liked this result better, as it was much tastier. I also did not use tomato sauce, sugar, chilli sauce, mint and ajinomoto which was included in the recipe, as I do not use ‘mono sodium glutamate’, and I do not like the taste of sweet sauces in vegetables.

Thanks Arundathi for letting me know - I am really out of touch I guess! Just zapped over to DK's!

This main dish accompaniment is going to DK's A.W.E.D - Chinese (the Szechuan rice will be next)! I guess I should call mine adapted Chinese and not Indo or any other regional version as I kept it close to the original recipe except for those alterations up there. I am sure there are going to be a lot of exciting entries considering the popularity of Chinese Cuisine! Waiting for the round up now:)

Labels: , , , ,