Not everyone likes paneer with their Chinese -- might be too over-the-top fusion, right?
But Chef Varun Inamdar's Black Pepper Paneer will change your mind. He adds black pepper and additional zing using burnt garlic, fries up the paneer till crusty to serve up a dish that will match your Chinese hakka noodles or rice wonderfully.
Chef Varun, whose Web site declares he is known as the Prince of Chocolate, is the name behind Barcode chocolate and Florence, a vegetarian cooking school located in Ahmedabad.
Photograph: Chef Varun Inamdar for Rediff
Black Pepper Paneer
Serves: 2-3
Ingredients
For the crispy paneer:
- 200 gm paneer, cubed
- 3 tbsp cornflour
- 2 tbsp rice flour
- ½ tsp black pepper powder
- Salt to taste, about 1 tsp
- ¼ cup water
- Oil for deep frying or shallow frying the paneer
For the garlic pepper sauce:
- 2 tbsp oil
- 6-7 pods garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp finely-chopped ginger
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- ½ tsp sugar
- ½ tsp black pepper powder
- ½ tsp white pepper powder, optional for extra heat
- ½ cup water + 1 tsp cornflour
- 2 tbsp chopped spring onions
Method
- In a shallow bowl, mix the cornflour, rice flour, black pepper powder, salt, water to form a light batter.
Heat the oil over medium-high heat.
Coat the paneer in the batter and shallow fry or deep fry until crispy and drain on a paper towel-lined plate.
Keep aside.
- In a frying pan, over medium heat, warm the 2 tbsp oil, fry half of the garlic until golden and crisp and drain onto a paper towel-lined plate.
Keep aside.
- In the same oil, add the remaining garlic, ginger and saute over medium heat.
Add in the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, black pepper, white pepper.
Add the cornflour slurry, stir until thickened.
Toss in the fried paneer and coat well with the sauce.
- Top with the burnt garlic, spring onions, serve hot with hakka noodles or stir-fried rice.
Editor's Note: If you prefer more chilly, add 1-2 tbsp chilly sauce into the sauce.
Please click here for a recipe for Hakka Noodles and Vegetable Fried Rice.