Tasty, Restaurant-Style Paneer Manchurian

Make Appetising Paneer Manchurian at Home

Paneer Manchurian is a popular and tasty Indian Chinese dish. It’s also quick to prepare. Barely 5 minutes to fry the paneer and another 5 – 6 minutes to prepare the sauce, and your restaurant-style Paneer Manchurian will be ready to serve. This is a sweet and sour and moderately spicy dish. It is characterised by a larger proportion of tomato sauce in the recipe.

Also, to make it even more quickly, appetising Paneer Manchurian can be prepared with store bought paneer. However, if you want to see how paneer can be made easily and more economically at home, please check my detailed video and recipe on how to make a tasty starter – paneer patties, from scratch.

Ingredients

200g Paneer

2 tbsp cornflour + 1 tbsp more

2 tbsp maida (all-purpose flour)

½ tsp crushed pepper

4 tbsp hot and sweet tomato sauce

(Or 4 tbsp tomato sauce+ 1/2 tsp chilli powder)

1 tbsp dark soya sauce

1 green chilli, finely chopped

2 ½ tbsp chopped ginger

2 ½ tbsp chopped garlic

¾ cup chopped onion and spring onion bulbs

¾ cup chopped spring onion greens

¾ cup chopped green capsicum

3 tbsp chopped coriander

Around ½ cup water

Salt to taste

3 tbsp oil

More oil for deep frying

Procedure

1. Chop the paneer into 1-inch cubes.
2. Next, prepare the marinade for the paneer. In a bowl, mix the cornflour (just 2 tbsp), the all-purpose flour, a little salt, crushed pepper, and 1 tsp of hot and sweet tomato sauce (you could use tomato sauce mixed with some chilli powder instead) from the 4 tbsp that you have. Make a smooth, thickish slurry with a little water.
3. Transfer the paneer to the bowl and stir everything so every cube of paneer is coated with the marinade. Set this aside for 5-6 minutes.
4. Deep-fry the paneer cubes in hot oil for around a minute or so, till they’re lightly browned. Transfer the fried paneer to a paper towel-lined plate.
5. In a wok, heat the 3 tbsp of oil. Sauté the chopped green chilli in this on medium-high heat for a few seconds and then transfer the chopped onion and chopped spring onion bulbs to the oil. After stir-frying the onions for a minute, add in the chopped garlic and ginger.
6. Stir-fry everything for another minute and then add the chopped capsicum. Continue stirring the mix.
7. After a minute or so, throw in the spring onion greens and continue stir-frying the vegetables. Add ½ a cup of water and the soya sauce to the wok. (You could reduce the water to a ¼ cup if you want the dish to be a little drier.)
8. Mix in the remaining hot and sweet tomato sauce, add in ½ a tsp of salt, stir everything again, and then taste the Manchurian sauce/gravy, adjusting for salt if necessary.
9. Carefully stir in the fried paneer. Don’t stir the dish too vigorously at this stage.
10. Make a slurry with 1 tbsp cornflour. Add this and the chopped coriander to the wok.
11. Give everything a quick stir and bring the mix to a boil. Lower the heat, let the mix cook for a couple of minutes, and finally, turn off the heat.
12. Serve the piping hot Paneer Manchurian garnished with chopped coriander.

Enjoy!