Monthly Archives: June 2024

Paneer Manchurian

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Indochinese is nostalgic to immigrants and I’ve tried for years to make a good paneer Manchurian. I think I finally have a recipe that’s worth writing down. The trick is replacing the ketchup with maggi hot and sweet tomato chilli sauce. Bonus – it’s ready in less than 20 min.

It’s inspired by this Ranveer Brar recipe. The ingredients are all approximate except for the sauce – measure that one out.

First soak your paneer in warm water for 15-20 min. It makes a big difference. Then fry it in about half an inch of oil till it’s brown on all sides. Remove paneer.

Next prep your stir fry ingredients- about a cup of onion, less than half a cup of scallions, about a tbsp each ginger and garlic and interestingly about half a cup of cilantro stalks . A chilli or two would work as well

The sauce is 1/3 cup of soy sauce and 1/3 cup of maggi hot and sweet tomato chili sauce (from your friendly Indian store), 1/3 cup water, a large tsp of sugar , a tsp or so of vinegar and lots of black pepper

Start stir frying – in the paneer oil, add onions and then scallions and cilantro stems and ginger and garlic. There should be a lot of different textures in this dish. Then add the paneer back and the sauce and cook for 2 min or so. Add a tsp or more of cornstarch slurry and the dish is done!

It’s spicy , sweet and very delicious.

Potato sagu

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I’ve been on a long quest for the perfect potato sagu- the kind served with rava idli and ghee in Bangalore restaurants. I think I’ve found it- the trick is thickening the potato curry with ground roasted chana dal. This is a satisfying curry – good with rice, roti or store bought Malaysian flaky parantha (lovely as a treat- but sadly too unhealthy for daily eats)

Step 1: wash and dry roast 1/4 cup of chana dal till pale brown- grind fine in a coffee grinder. Make a paste with about half cup of water

Step 2: tempering – standard South Indian – in 1 -2 tbsp of oil, add 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds and heat till they sputter, add 1/2 tsp of cumin seeds, a pinch of asafetida, 1/2 tsp of turmeric and 1-2 dried red chilies and 2-3 kadipatta leaves.

Step 3: add chopped potatoes and water and salt and boil for 10-15 minutes till cooked though

Step4: add chana dal paste, cook for 5-10 minutes. Garnish with roasted cashews and cilantro and squeeze about one lemon to taste in the curry off the heat.

Persian Lentil rice with dates

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This is such a good recipe. It’s reminiscent of the Indian khichdi but better !

I modified it from this NYT one. This recipe is for 3-4 people

In a rice cooker , add 1 cup basmati, 1/2 cup small green lentils. Wash and rinse twice and add 3 cups of water, a small cinnamon stick and a pinch of saffron and salt and pepper . Let the rice cooker do its thing

In a pan, heat some oil and fry up one large onion with some salt and pepper till it’s dark brown and a little crispy. This will take about 15 minutes. Make sure it doesn’t burn. Remove onion and in the same oil, fry up 6-7 chopped dates in the oil with some salt and I added Aleppo pepper (about a teaspoon). Next chop up a handful of herbs (mint, cilantro, parsley). Mix all that up

Now layer the rice with the onion-date-herb mixture. Drizzle with ghee (browned butter). Enjoy with salted yogurt on the side. This dish would be great covered with foil and heated just before serving.

Dates