Few days back I got a chance to connect with my old time school buddy, Ricky Jariwala who is settled far off in UK now. We got in touch after almost 26 years.One fine day, I came to know he is visiting India and will surely come home, being a foodie my first question to all my visitors is “What will you eat, what’s your favourite dish ?”….and the answer came Chilli Paneer! Paneer is not my forte…I am not a dairy product person, so I stay away from Paneer, milk, curd…..etc.

For once thought will order from a Chinese joint, but then I had been boasting so much about my cooking talent to my friend..It would have been unfair.So after lots of thinking and research on Paneer. …I ended up making Chilli Paneer.

Happiest person to have it was ofcourse Shonty, who is a die hard Paneer fan & a special thanks to Sanjana for all the help and tasting….So here goes the recipe….adapted from Tarla Dalal’s recipe, with little changes here and there.

Actually this is a traditional Chilli chicken dish,modified for vegetarians. Can be served as starters or as an accompaniment with rice or noodles.

Ingredients:

1 cup Paneer cut into 12 mm strips.

Oil for deep frying.

Mix into thick batter:

1/4 cup Corn flour.

1/4 cup Maida.

pinch of Baking powder.

Salt to taste.

Other Ingredients:

1 tsp Ginger grated.

1 tsp Garlic grated.

3 Green Chilles split opened.

1/4 cup Capsicum chopped into big pieces.

1/4 cup Onion chopped into big pieces.

1 tsp Soya sauce.

1 tsp Sugar.

1 tbsp Cornflour mixed with 3 tbsp water.

1 tsp Oil.

Salt to taste.

Method:

Combine all the ingredients for the batter in a bowl to make a smooth paste by adding 1/4 cup water.keep it aside.

Wash Paneer pieces in a bowl of water,now drain and add to prepared batter.

Heat oil in a non stick pan, coat the Paneer pieces well in the batter and deep fry in hot oil till golden brown.

Drain on absorbant paper and Keep aside.In a heavy bottom pan , heat oil, add ginger and garlic, saute for a minute, add green chillies, onions and Capsicum and saute for another minute on high flame.

Add soya sauce , sugar, salt and 1/2 cup water, let it come to boil, now add Cornflour mixed in water, mix well, gravy will now start to thicken up.

Add fried Paneer pieces, toss in with light hand.

Remove in a serving bowl, garnish with green chillies and serve immediately.

Tip:Chicken can be used in above dish instead of Paneer to make chilli chicken.

Happy Cooking !!!

Sameera