If you are a vegetarian in India who loves Chinese food (Indo-Chinese, to be accurate) you have to order a manchurian gravy with either fried rice or hakka noodles. It is as if no other dish exists. I have gone to countless dinners with friends and family and every time we landed at a Chinese joint, it was fried rice, hakka noodles and vegetable manchurian. The only thing we would debate about was if we needed the manchurian with or without the gravy. If we were in a spend-all mode then we would have spring rolls for starters and manchurian with gravy for mains else it was ordered without gravy. And Indian restaurants in their forever adapting jugaad mode came up with paneer, cauliflower and baby corn varieties for manchurian giving us a wee bit relief from the usual mixed vegetable one.

So this paneer manchurian is an ode to every meal with family and friends that I had back in Mumbai with the same dishes over and over again.

Recipe adapted from here

Serves 2-3

WHAT WE NEED

200 gms Paneer

4-5 Garlic cloves

1″ Ginger, grated

1-2 Green chillies

1/3 cup Spring onion greens

1/2 Capsicum, finely chopped (optional)

2 tsp Soy sauce

2 tbsp Tomato sauce

1 1/2 cups Water

1-2 tsp Sugar

1/2 tsp Vinegar

2 tbsp Cornflour

Salt

Oil

WHAT TO DO

• Cut the paneer into cubes
• In a small bowl, mix together 1 tbsp cornflour, 1 grated garlic, grated ginger and salt
• Add the paneer and coat it well with the cornflour mixture
• Deep fry or shallow fry the paneer till it is light brown and set aside
• In a pan, heat 2 tsp oil
• Finely chop and add the garlic and green chillies
• Once the garlic starts to brown, add the spring onions and capsicum
• Stir it frequently and let it cook for 3-4 minutes
• Add the soy sauce, tomato sauce and 1 cup of water and mix well
• Mix 1 tbsp of cornflour with 3 tbsp of water and add to the pan
• Cook on simmer and let the sauce thicken
• Add the vinegar, salt and sugar and mix
• Add the paneer and simmer for 2-3 minutes
• If the sauce is too thick add 1 tbsp of water at a time till it reached the desired consistency
• Turn off the gas and garnish with some spring onion greens
• Serve hot with hakka noodles or fried rice
• Enjoy!

This is my post for the Blogging Marathon under the theme, ‘Street Food’.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM