Blessings From My Kitchen: Paneer fried rice

I don't quite consider myself a huge fan of Indian-Chinese food. Yet, it should be noted that this blended-culinary rubric belongs to a fantastically addictive class of it's own. Insomuch it dominates the Indian meal scene, and comes with a sustaining popularity that comfort food often brings.

Indo- Chinese cuisine is a one -of -a -kind South Asian phenomenon, combining Chinese flavors within a traditional Indian blueprint. It's Chinese cooking remodeled to cater to Indian tastebuds. It was a way early Chinese immigrants localized their food in a newfound mainland. Over the centuries, the evolving hybrid cuisine took on a life of its own, not only in India, but on many trails of the map an Indian calls home. It is, on most counts, the desi's favorite "foreign" food.

Most dishes are labeled "chili" and more often than not, meals begin with sweet corn soup. No doubt, it's supremely satisfying and iconic in the niche of fusion plating. Categories of "Manchurian"( not really a known word) regularly feature on chalkboard signs of roadside stalls, in itemized lists of tiffin joints and covering large sections of fine dining menus. Suffice to say, Indo-Chinese outplaces the idea of traditional Chinese in that part of the world.

As I've mentioned before, paneer is perfect in such settings. Intentionally seasoning Indian cheese with significant spice and throwing it into umami scented rice represent this best-of-both-worlds ' concept. Moreover, paneer is hearty enough to hold strong in a bed of sauce-based basmati, but complies significantly for ingredients to amp its curdled soul.

A photo of the paneer fried rice I'd made to feed something short of half battalion of my adult kiddo's friends, ushered in a flood of Instagram messaging, all requests on "how do I make this?", followed by head scratching emojis, things I am so not accustomed to receiving.

That's the effect of an on-glance of this dish.

Take a long gaze to get what I'm saying.

The authenticity of the Chinese part hangs precisely on the condiments infused in the rice. By all means, you can swap/add any sauce/flavoring ingredient that you'd like to eat. It may not level up to a reliable balance and can't possibly guarantee the second/ third/fourth serving outcome.

If you feel a lack of it being Chinese-ey enough, remember you can always use chopsticks.

And if you err the other way, say namaste.

Ingredients:

4 tbsp oil
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 ½ cups paneer, when cut into ½ inch cubes
1 tsp cayenne or Indian red chili powder
1 tsp coriander
¼ tsp cumin
½ tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tbsp Sriracha
salt
1 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tsp chopped ginger
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
5 scallions, chopped
1 bell pepper(any color) diced
1 cup frozen peas
5 cups cooked basmati rice
4 tbsp soy sauce or more to taste
3 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp hot Schezwan sauce
2- 3 tsp toasted sesame oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F.
Coat paneer with cayenne, coriander, cumin, pepper garlic, ginger, Sriracha, salt
Lay out in a single layer onto baking sheet smeared with 2 tablespoons oil. Finish tops with a coating of the cooking spray.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, checking in between to see if tops are brown. Once browned, take out of oven. Set aside.
Heat remaining oil and butter in a large sauté pan over medium high heat.
Add garlic, ginger, chopped whites of scallions and fry till golden,
Add carrots. Sauté for 2-3 minutes, until carrots are soft.
Stir in bell pepper and peas and heat for a minute.
Add rice and stir.
Pour in the sauces and sesame oil, coat rice evenly.
Add salt and pepper if needed.
Turn off heat.
Crumble a few pieces of paneer and mix it in with the rice. Top with the rest of the paneer cubes.
Sprinkle with the chopped scallion greens.

This recipe would benefit greatly if you used homemade paneer. In case you missed it, my step by step instructional is right here.

Guess what? You can bake paneer in the air fryer- same amount of oil and spices, at 400° F for 15 minutes or until charred. It might help to turn pieces over at the half interval.