Schezwan Paneer with homemade schezwan sauce

To make the sauce, take the red chillies, cut the top and take out the seeds by slitting them from the middle. Heat water in a saucepan and boil. Then add in the dry red chillies and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove and drain the water.

Reserve the drained water and use it to blend the chillies into a fine paste. Keep the red chilli paste aside.

Heat oil in a pan, add in the ginger and garlic and saute. Then add in the red chilli paste and mix well. Next add the tomato ketchup, soy sauce, salt and black pepper and sugar. Mix it well and simmer the sauce for 5-7 minutes.

The sauce is ready. Cool and store this sauce in an air-tight container in refrigerator. (I have used this sauce to make the Paneer Schezwan gravy.)

To make the gravy, usually in this recipe, paneer pieces are dipped in cornflour batter and deep fried. But I totally avoided that step and sauted the paneer pieces in oil from both sides until they were lightly browned. Keep aside.

In the same oil, add onions and vegetables together and saute them for 2-3 minutes until they are just done. Add the schezwan sauce and mix well with the vegetables. Then add about 1 cup of water and simmer for 2 minutes.

Add panner too in the gravy along with salt and black pepper to taste. Dissolve the 1 tbsp cornflour in a little water and pour in the gravy. When the gravy thickens a bit, remove it from the fire.

Serve with Chinese hakka noodles or Chinese fried rice for best taste.