The Paneer Manchurian Dry Recipe is party pleasure snack recipe. This pan-fried paneer tossed in spices and sauces can be cooked in minutes at home. For the newbie in the cooking, this is an easy Chinese starter Recipe from the cottage cheese. This delicious, yummy, tasty and spicy Dry Manchurian is one of the best and easiest Indo Chinese recipes to try.
Paneer Manchurian Dry
- Author: Chandni Agrawal
- Recipe Category: Snacks
- Cuisine: Indo-Chinese
Description: The Paneer Manchurian Dry Recipe is party pleasure snack recipe. This pan-fried paneer tossed in spices and sauces can be cooked in minutes at home. Try it!
Ingredients Paneer Manchurian Dry Recipe:
There are various ingredients required to make the paneer Manchurian dry at home. The sauce is made from basic spices and condiments which are commonly available in our kitchen. Whereas the main ingredient of this dish is Paneer which is coated with corn starch and tossed in some spice powders.
For Sauce:
- Tomato Ketchup – 2 tbsp.
- Vinegar – ½ tsp.
- Soy Sauce – ½ tbsp.
- Pepper Powder (Black or White) – ¼ tsp.
- Onion (diced) – ½ cup
- Red Chilli Powder – ½ tsp.
- Green Capsicum (diced) – ½ cup
- Celery (finely chopped – Optional) – 2 tsp.
- Garlic (finely chopped) – 1 tsp.
- Green Chillies (finely chopped) – 1 tsp.
- Ginger (finely chopped) – 1 tsp
- Salt – as per taste
- Water – As instructed
Note: You can use 1 ½ tbsp. to 2 tbsp. tomato ketchup as per your choice. You may use rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar or regular vinegar. The substitute of red chilli powder can be cayenne pepper powder. The approximate proportion of water can be ¼ cup.
If you do not have onions, then use the white portion of the spring onions. To make the dish look more colourful use red, green, yellow, and orange colour bell peppers.
For Paneer Manchurian:
- Paneer (cottage cheese) – 250 grams
- Corn Starch (corn flour) – 2 tbsp.
- Sugar – ½ tsp.
- Black Pepper Powder – ½ tsp.
- Red Chilli Powder – ½ tsp.
- Oil – 3 tbsp. (use saffola active oil)
- Salt – As per taste
Note: You can use white pepper powder as well. Even the Sichuan pepper powder can also be added. Add salt as required or sprinkle ½ tsp. of salt for this proportion of ingredients.
Steps for Paneer Manchurian Dry Recipe:
It is very easy to follow the paneer Manchurian dry recipe and make this restaurant-style Chinese starter at home. Learn, make and enjoy this delicious and tasty starter snack.
Pre-Preparation:
- Clean all the veggies and Paneer (if you bought it from a local sweet shop).
- Chop Onions and Capsicum. They should be diced into roughly 1-inch squares.
- Finely chop Garlic, Ginger, Green chillies and celery (if you have).
- Dry your paneer by using a clean cloth. (Dry properly)
- Cut paneer into equally sized cubes of around 1 inch.
Note: If you are using frozen paneer, then thaw it before chopping into small cubes. If you do not have celery, you can skip it. If you are using spring onions, then wash it and remove it stem. Cut chop the white portion and green portion in the separate bowls.
Preparation:
- Take a medium sized mixing bowl and add paneer cubes into it.
- Now, to this bowl, add 2 tbsp. cornflour, ½ tsp. red chilli powder and ½ tsp. black pepper powder.
- Season this mixture with near about ½ tsp. of salt.
- Toss these ingredients and give a gentle shake to the bowl.
- Mix the ingredients in the bowl gently such that every ingredient is evenly mixed with other the ingredient.
- Make sure the paneer cubes are properly covered by the mixture of these powders & cornflour.
- For the perfect crispy and crunchy texture of the paneer, and for the paneer to taste delicious, it has to be evenly from all sides.
- Take a kadai/wok and heat 3 tbsp. oil in it.
- As the oil is heated up, set the flame to medium and add these covered paneer cubes in the oil.
- Fry the paneer cubes from all sides by flipping and turning the sides.
- Shallow fry this mixture coated paneer cubes till they are cooked evenly.
- Fry until the paneer cubes are crisp from the outer surface and turned into light golden colour.
- As soon as you see the golden paneer, turn off the flame and transfer the paneer cubes to a plate.
- Remove excess oil from the paneer.
- Now, again turn on the flame and add the chopped veggies in the same pan you used for frying paneer.
- Add the finely chopped onion or the white portion of the spring onions.
- Saute the onions for a while, when they become translucent then add capsicum, garlic, ginger, green chillies and celery.
- Stir these ingredients well with each other in the pan.
- Till your veggies are being stir-fried, check the bowl of corn flour in which you coated the paneer cubes.
- Now, if you have the cornflour mixture left in the bowl, then add 1/3 cup water to it and make its sauce. If your paneer cubes were dry, you can use this mixture. But if your cubes were moist, then you have to make the mixture again.
- Also, if you do not have that mixture left, then make the same mixture again in the small quantity. Mix 1 tbsp. cornflour and 3 tbsp. water to prepare the cornstarch paste. Then mix this cornflour paste with the spice powder and add ¼ cup of water to make the mixture.
- Keep this mixture paste aside for a while and get back to the veggies which are being stirred-fried.
- You have to fry the veggies till the bell peppers are half cooked.
- Add ½ tbsp. soy sauce to the veggies and mix it properly.
- Now, add 1 tbsp. tomato ketchup to the veggies and mix it. If you like the sweet and tangy taste of tomato ketchup you can add another 1 tbsp.
- Stir and mix the tomato ketchup with the mixture. Add ½ tsp. of sugar in the kadai.
- Now, pour the cornflour paste which you prepared into the veggies and mix it well.
- Then add the black pepper powder and red chilli powder in the required proportion.
- Also, season the mixture with salt as per taste. The soy sauce, tomato sauce and corn starch paste have salt, so add accordingly.
- Stir the mixture well and taste it once. Adjust the taste of salt and spices accordingly.
- Simmer it on a medium flame for 2 minutes.
- As the sauce thickens up, add the fried paneer cubes in the kadai.
- Mix everything well so that the paneer cubes are well covered with the paste and veggies
- Finally, add little less than ½ tsp. of vinegar (add any vinegar which you are using).
- Stir everything for ½ to 1 minute.
- Taste it and adjust quantity of vinegar & soy sauce.
- You can sprinkle more of red chilli powder or black pepper powder as well if you want.
- Turn off the flame and transfer it to a serving bowl.
And the spicy Paneer Manchurian Dry is ready. Serve it HOT!
Note: If you want, you can first mix the corn flour with the spices. Give a toss, mix everything and then add the chopped paneer cubes in it.
The cornflour batter in which you dip the paneer cubes, should not be too thick as well. If it is too thin, it won’t coat the Paneer properly. And if it is too thick, it won’t make the outer layer crunchy.
Additional Information:
- Calories: 250 calories
- Total Time: PT40M
- Serves: 5
- Date Published: 2017-01-30
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The paneer is chopped in small cubes, coated in the corn flour spice and tossed in the Chinese condiments. There is a wonderful combination of spicy, tangy, and sweet sauces with the mild flavoured paneer. This easy and quick paneer dish is an ideal party food but it is an awesome snack for lunchbox as well. This is the best dish for vegetarians which can also be served with the main course.
The paneer cubes are soft and moist from inside whereas crispy and crunchy from outside. It has the spiciness of the soya sauce, ginger-garlic and green chillies. It also has the tanginess of tomato ketchup. All these flavouring agents give the nice complex flavours to this dish. But you can adjust their proportion based on the flavours you desire. Twist this recipe your way and make it worth to eat.
Remarks:
- You can also use Spring onions instead of celery.
- You can add any colour capsicum. I personally use all available capsicum.
- Equally sized veggies and Paneer cubes look very nice when serving.
- While frying paneer cubes, do not over fry them or the outer cover will not taste good.
- If your Kadai/wok is small, then fry paneer in 2 batches.
- For crispier version, you can try shallow fry. But, it will be very oily and you might not like it if you are health conscious.
- For all the vegan folks, you can make the same dish using Tofu.
- For the substitute of green chillies, use Serrano Peppers or Jalapeno Pepper.
- If you have fresh or frozen peas in your fridge, then you can add them as well.
- You can try the same recipe with the cheese cubes as well. The cheese would become shapeless when you bake but would still taste nice.
Garnish:
Serve the Paneer Dry Manchurian Hot and Warm in the shallow serving bowl. You can have this starter plain or with the bowl of Veg Manchow Soup as a side accompaniment. Keep the small bowl of sizzling hot and spicy Schezwan sauce as a dip to have it with this tasty appetizer.
- Garnish with spring onion or celery if available
- Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves if available
- Season the paneer Manchurian with mint leaves or parsley leaves.
- Kids like tangy. So, serve it with homemade tomato ketchup.
- If you like it spicy, then sprinkle very finely chopped ½ piece of green chilli.
- For the parties, pair this spicy Manchurian with the sweet eggless banana cake.
Quick Tip:
- If you paneer for a longer time, the cubes would become dense and hard to chew.
- If you have time, then make the paneer at home. The fresh and best quality paneer always taste best.
- While mixing the paneer cubes with the corn flour, they have to be really dry. Otherwise, the paneer cubes will get stuck between themselves.
- You can add 1 tsp. of chilli sauce with soy sauce. If you do not have tomato ketchup, then add the 3 tsp. of fresh tomato puree.
- Use the peppers which are not very hot or spicy. Otherwise, the heat of the pepper would overpower the spiciness and taste of the dish.
The addition of various bell peppers makes the dish colour and the sauces make the dish flavourful. The onions, ginger and garlic when sautéed in oil becomes fragrant. All these fried veggies release the tempting aroma. The sprinkle of spring onion and the fresh herbs for garnish gives attractive look to the dish. The blend of Indian spices and the Chinese Sauces gives absolute delicious taste to the dish. The alternation to the authentic Chinese recipe is healthy and light on stomach as well.
Paneer Manchurian is a really a fantastic starter dish simply made with Indian Cottage Cheese. It is fabulous to eat the paneer cooked with other veggies and sautéed in spicy sauces. This Indo-Chinese dish is available is almost every restaurant menu. It is super simple to follow and very quick to make this restaurant-style dish at home. You can prepare this dish to serve for starters in small parties or to have it for your evening snack. If you want more gravy with your veggies in the Paneer Manchurian dry then you can make the same dish with the paneer Manchurian gravy recipe.